


I Gave You Something You Can Never Give Back, Don't You Mind?

by Chandler_Bing



Category: Spider-Man - Fandom, Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Eventual Smut, F/F, Genderfluid, Slow Burn, Spiderman AU, Violence, Well I'll try with the comedy, because it's me i always write smut, really slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-03-11 22:16:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13533654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chandler_Bing/pseuds/Chandler_Bing
Summary: The Spiderman AU nobody asked for but I needed, so I wrote it and decided to share.Nicole is SpiderMan and genderqueer/gender fluid, Waverly is Mary Jane.  This starts with them in High School and will definitely stretch over a few years.  Very slow burn. But I think there will be enough WayHaught fluff to tide ya'll over.Rated M for language, mentions of abuse, and mild violence.





	1. Hierarchy

**Author's Note:**

> If you’re a huge Spiderman fan/nerd these notes are important so you know who’s who and how I’m going to go about writing this. If you don’t care about the details of the Spiderman storyline then skip straight to the chapter.
> 
> Nicole is Peter Parker. Nedley is Aunt May. Shae is Gwen Stacy. Waverly of course is Mary Jane. Ward is alive and a jackass. Champ is Flash Thompson. Tucker Gardner will be a member of Champ's crew. Doc is Harry Osborn (And his father will just be made up). Jeremy will be the Leo Zelinsky, Waverly’s best friend as well as the science/tech/engineering/suit creator guy as well as Spiderman’s behind the scenes sidekick. And I’ll be taking a LOT of liberties with the rest of the cast and even include other Marvel universe characters. Once they appear I’ll let you know which character they embody. This will by no means follow the exact story line but it will be inspired by a lot of it. I'll be using a fusion of the comics and all three versions of the movie as well as my own imagination to create this. So here goes nothin!

It all started when she was 15 years old.  Nicole Haught wasn’t really anything too special around her school.  She was just the science geek that also took yearbook and school event photos. Her best quality was her best friend, John Henry (or Doc), he was the typical rich playboy.  Got his nickname ‘Doc’ because he always claimed to want to be a doctor someday but every year he nearly flunked out of each grade.  What started out as something the kids used to pic on him was turned around into a charming nickname.  Only Doc could manage such a thing.

While daydreaming about the school hierarchy, Nicole managed to miss the bus…again.  She ran out of the house once she heard the horn honk (once only) and ran after it as usual but the driver never stopped.  All the kids on the bus stuck their heads out of the window laughing at her: all of them except one apologetic face.  Waverly Earp.  She was always nice, but never said anything to the other kids.  Never swayed into being a bully, which Nicole liked, but she still hung out with all the people that weren’t exactly polite.

After walking for approximately 6 minutes the redhead heard a boisterous "YO!" come from behind her and Doc rolled up to the curb next to her.  “Need a ride?” he asked.  Nicole smiled gratefully and slid into the passenger seat of his BMW convertible.  She was grateful that Doc turned 16 last year and was able to get his license.

“How is it that you manage to miss the bus damn near every day, Haught?”

“I don’t know.  I just get caught up in thought.”

“Well, maybe you should stop thinking sometimes and just have fun…and you know, not miss the bus for a change.”

“Or you could just pick me up in the morning?”

“See, if I did that you wouldn’t learn anything would you?”

“What could I possibly learn from missing the bus and having to run to school every day?”

“Some focus, some realism…cardio?” Doc poked Nicole in the ribs then.  She was notoriously out of shape.  Her form was naturally smaller than average and she didn’t really have any muscle mass.  In fact she was so small she, at one point, had to take medication to gain a few pounds.  Her body just didn’t absorb nutrients as well as it should.

 “I hate working out.” The redhead groaned then.

“You’ve never tried, Cole.”

“You know I hate it when you call me that.”  Cole was a name everyone called her in middle school because she was “shaped like a boy”.  Nicole was skin and bones, while the other girls in her class had grown round butts, perky breasts, and developed hour glass figures.  She had started to fill out a little bit by end of freshman year and now it was nearly the end of sophomore year and finally that stupid name was dying out but the thought of it still stung.  Nicole identified as gender fluid but the name came about from people making fun of her and that wasn’t something she was ok with.

“I always thought it was a good nickname.  And you say you’re ‘gender fluid’, which I don’t quite understand, so what’s the big deal?”

“You don’t need to understand it, Doc.  You just have to respect it.” She said as they pulled into one of the parking spaces in the school parking lot. Nicole jumped out immediately and walked quickly for the front door.

“I do respect it! I even did research and used the neutral pronouns.” Doc panted as he raced after his friend.

“Neutral pronouns are for non-binary people. They don’t identify as male or female.  And I identify as both so you could call me he or she: it doesn’t matter either way.” 

Nicole stopped at her locker to put her things away and get her book for her first class. With Doc’s driving they made it in plenty of time.

“Ok, I’ll try to remember that.” Doc tipped his hat and wandered off after that.

Nicole could see a group of glamorized teens approaching from her right and she groaned as she realized just who it was. Champ Hardy followed by his minions.  They were too close for her to make an escape unseen now so she braced herself.

“Hey nerd!” One of the oddly tall teens yelled from down the hall. “I’m surprised you made it here; you know I never knew someone so smart could be so stupid. You get left behind every day.”  The boy, known as Tucker, was standing in front of Nicole then.  He snatched the glasses off of her face and held them up out of her reach. “You’d think you could see the bus right in front of you since you have 4 eyes and all.” He laughed

“Come on, Tuck.  Those are my last pair you can’t break those too.”

“Hey, only my friends call me Tuck.” he snarled.

“I remember when we were friends. I remember when you wore glasses too.  Give them back, Tuck, or I tell some stories you and I both know you don’t want getting around.”  The taller boy showed defeat on his face and his jaw clenched.  He gave Nicole her glasses back and pointed at her as he and his posse started walking down the hall again. 

“This isn’t over.”

Nicole rested her forehead against her locker and let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“Just two more years, Nicole.” She said aloud to herself. “Two more years and you’ll be away from all these people.”

Tucker was the most surprising bully.  He was thick as thieves with her and Doc  up until freshman year.  But he got taller, ditched the glasses for contacts and joined the basketball team, so with the sports came the muscle.  And with the muscle came the popularity.

* * *

 

Nicole sat in class for her first period with her head in her hands.  She hated that she was afraid to be at school.  It was her learning environment after all.  The teachers and principle did nothing about it even though she’s reported it multiple times. Her Aunt Sally Nedley and Uncle, Randy Nedley, who she just called ‘Uncle Ned’ couldn’t afford to move her to a different or private school so she just had to tough it out.

“Hey Nicole.”  She heard from her left.  She looked up to see Waverly Earp giving her a sheepish smile from the seat she occupied every day.

“Waverly.” Nicole responded dryly.

“I uh.  I tried to make the bus driver stop for you.”

“Mhm.”

“I really did…I always do.” She responded as the bell rang.

“You know, if you weren’t so ashamed to be seen with me you could always just you know…let me know when the bus arrives.  We’ve lived next door to each other for almost 10 years.”  Nicole smiled and directed her attention to the teacher. 

The only thing that would get her through the day was the goal of making it to the tour of Oscorp Industries and the lecture on radiation that she’d be attending at the end of the week.


	2. Biology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The response I received on this was so much more than I expected so I got really excited and decided to post another chapter :D

It was Thursday, Nicole sat at the breakfast table with her aunt and uncle dreading the day ahead at school.  Tuesday, Doc had picked her up but since then he’d fallen ill and would probably be out for the rest of the week.  Maybe two based on the way he sounded over the phone.  Nicole’s cheek still throbbed from the punch she took the day before.  It had come out of nowhere and she had no doubt Tucker had assigned a random girl to deliver the blow.  One thing he didn’t believe in was males hitting females.  But part of Nicole wish he did just so she could give him what he deserved.  Even if she wasn’t the strongest person in the world it would be nice to get one hit in.

“What’s wrong, jelly bean?” Aunt Sally questioned. “You’ve hardly touched your eggs.”

“I’m just tired.” Nicole lied.  Her Aunt was perceptive, however, and knew instantly.

“I have no problem speaking with the mothers of those kids tormenting you at school.  I know that mark on your cheek isn’t from a fall.”

“No, Aunt Sally. That would just make everything worse.  I can handle it.”

“And you don’t want to go to that prep school?” Nedley asked as he sipped his coffee.

“We can’t afford that…my freelance photography only really gets me enough to afford my lunch.”

“We’ve told you to save your money.  Your aunt and I love your initiative, but you need to focus on school and being a kid.”

“If you’ll be better off at a private school we’ll figure out a way.  We always manage.” Aunt sally smiled and leaned in to kiss her husband on the cheek.  Nicole hoped that she could find a love like theirs someday.

Someone knocked on the door then, disturbing the family moment.  Nicole jumped up to get it.  She sighed as she swung the door open and her eyes nearly popped out of her head In shock.  It was none other than Waverly.  She made sure to lean in such a way that the bruise on the right side of her face wasn’t visible before talking.

“Hey. Hope i'm not interrupting.” Waverly said awkwardly

“Uh…hi?” the redhead questioned. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, Yeah everything is fine.  Um, the bus will be here in about 5 and I just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it today.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, I um. I thought about what you said on Monday.  And you were right I live in spitting distance so I could just…ok I’m gonna.” The brunette pointed her thumb out towards the street.

“Waverly?” Aunt Sally called from inside the house. “Is that you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages. Nicole, don’t be rude invite her inside!”

The redhead offered a tight-lipped smile and stepped to the side.  Waverly awkwardly stepped into the living room leaving Nicole behind her and took a quick glance around.  She recalled this being the place she’d run to when her parents started fighting, especially when they started getting physical with each other.  The house looked different but it was still just as homey and welcoming.

Before she knew what was happening Sally had engulfed the young girl in a hug.

“You are just gorgeous. Don’t you agree, jelly bean?”

“Oh, Thank you, Mrs. Nedley.” She responded sheepishly.

Nicole had to agree.  Waverly was wearing her favorite pair of blue jeggings and a black crop top with a flowy floral overcoat sweater thing (she had no idea what those things were called but it looked nice). Her naturally crinkled hair always seemed to be perfect and the only thing resembling makeup on her face was some light pink lipgloss with just the right amount of shimmer.

“Waverly has always been gorgeous.” The redhead smiled. “I’m going to grab my bag real quick.  Give me 60 seconds.”

“Ok, I’ll wait outside for you.”

Nicole bolted up the stairs and back down in a little over a minute and caught Waverly as she was exiting her home.  She kissed her guardians goodbye and found herself sitting at the bus stop with Waverly.  Still with the bad side of her face out of sight.  Not that it was particularly hard to hide since the brunette was making a point to keep looking at her feet.

“Thank you for coming to get me today.”

“It’s no problem.”  Waverly picked at her fingernails idly. “Sally still calling you ‘jelly bean’ huh?”

They both laughed and Nicole nodded

“Yes. There are some battles you can’t win.  It was easier to accept it.”

“mmm. They’re both still really sweet.”

“Yep. They're the best.  I don’t know where I’d be without them.”

“If they hadn’t taken you in then we probably wouldn’t have met.  How crazy is that?”

Nicole furrowed her brow and looked on skeptically. “And that’s...important to you?”

“Of course it is, Nicole.” Waverly responded incredulously “You’re the best person I know.”

“Could have fooled me…”

“Look I know that lately things have been kind of…distant.”

“It’s not distant Waves, you shut me out…All of my friends did except Doc.”

“I know. And I’m sorry about that.”

“Why? I’ve always wanted to know.”

“It wasn’t anything personal, it was just survival. New York is tough as it is, I was trying to avoid the added pressures of high school.”

“By succumbing to peer pressure and isolating the “best person you know”? she responded sarcastically.

Waverly laughed then and shook her head. “Ok so that maybe was not the best plan of action.  But I realized the other day how much I’d hurt you and I’m really sorry.  I want us to be friends again.”

“Really? How’s your boyfriend and his minions going to handle that?”

“Champ isn’t my boyfriend. He’s just a boy, but he is my friend.  In a non boyfriend way.”

“That’s not what everyone else seems to think.” The redhead snorted

“I don’t care about everyone else.  We’re not together”

The bus pulled up then, Waverly hopped to her feet and grabbed her bag.  Nicole looked on in fear, she couldn’t remember the last time she rode the bus with all of her class mates.  Truth be told, maybe missing it every day was on purpose.

“Nicole come on.” Waverly called from the bottom step.  She reached out her hand to the scrawny red head and smiled.  Nicole relented and walked onto the bus hand in hand with Waverly leading the way.  The only available seats were in the back.

“Well well well. Looks like Waverly has a new girlfriend.”

“Knock it off, Tucker.” The brunette snapped. “The fact that you can’t get a girl to hold your hand isn’t an excuse to harass every female that crosses your line of sight.”

Nicole bit her lower lip to stifle her laughter as she went to the back of the bus and slid all the way in next to the window.

“Someone is a bit feisty.” She acknowledged

“You kind of have to be when you're around those people or they'll walk all over you.  But not everyone is bad.” Waverly said as she settled in to the uncomfortable and warn out seat. “Nicole, what happened to your face?!”

“Oh that.” The redhead blushed and put her hand over where she knew her bruise was. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Yes it is! Did someone hit you?!”

“It’s ok Waverly.”

“No, I want to know.” She removed Nicole’s hand and placed her own fingers gently over the blue and purple swelling flesh.  “It needs ice.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a half frozen bottle of water.

“I don’t know who it was.  It was some girl that sucker punched me and ran off. I didn’t see it coming.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well that’s how it usually happens, so I’m guessing Tucker the boy wonder sends some of his groupies to do the job.”

The brunette flared her nostrils in anger as she pressed the bottle underneath Nicole’s eyes. “I could have Champ beat him up.”

“Oh? Would the average ‘non-boyfriend’ beat up their friend for a non girlfriend?”

They stayed silent after that and went their separate ways after arriving at school.

It was a pretty normal day. Usually people either bothered Nicole or acted like she didn’t exist and today she was invisible which wasn’t the worst thing.  She had Biology and then would be able to go to lunch, she was starving since not really eating any of her breakfast.

They had a new student in class.  The teacher had introduced her and thrown her next to Nicole to work on identifying cells in their phases of mitosis. All Nicole knew is that she was a girl with an attitude that smelled so strong of vanilla it felt like it hit her in the face the second she plopped down in the seat next to hers.  But Nicole hadn’t been bothered enough to pay attention to what the girl’s name was when she was introduced. 

Nicole hardly payed attention to her even when she sat next to her and said “What’s going on, red?” which annoyed her for no good reason so her come back was snarkier than she anticipated.

“If we’re identifying each other by hair color should I just call you ‘black’?”

“Fairly certain if heard by the wrong person and taken out of context that could be seen as racist.”

Nicole just shrugged and conceded. “Yeah, probably. But no one around here listens to me anyway so would it really matter?”

“I’m listening…”

“Probably won’t last long.  I’m the school’s pariah.”

“Awww is someone having a pity party?”

The redhead rolled her eyes and pulled the microscope infront of herself.

“I’ll identify, you write it down.”

“Probably should be the other way around, red.  We already went over this at my last school and I have a knack for the physical structure of living organisms.”

“Just because you know the definition of the word biology doesn't mean you're smarter. I’m just as capable.”

“Ok, then we both do it.  I’ll just double check your work.”

Nicole rolled her eyes again and huffed at how irritating this girl was.  They took turns identifying the cells and each of them double checked each other’s work. Nicole wasn’t lost on the fact that the new girl would barely glance In the microscope and could tell instantly what phase it was while it took herself at least 30 seconds to work it out.  Even with their doubling up on the work they were still the first ones done so they were dismissed early.  Of course they got every label correct and was paired up to do a huge end of the year project together.

Nicole went to her locker to put her things away and was relieved that she’d have an extra 20 minutes for lunch.  She’d be able to sit and enjoy her food without the risk of being harassed.  She made her way to the cafeteria and was delighted to see there was no line.  A simple ham sandwich with some sour cream and onion chips and a small carton of chocolate milk.  It was heaven.  Half way into her food and no backhanded remarks or “accidental” bumps. At least not until someone sat across from her.

“What’s up, red? Funny seeing you here.”

“Funny seeing me in a place where everyone comes to eat?”

“Figure of speech.  You need to lighten up!”

“Mmm.” Nicole groaned and continued to eat her food.  Her annoyance was probably radiating off of her.

“Look, I know I can come on strong and I’m sorry.  It just sucks being the new girl that’s all alone in a place where everyone already knows each other.”

Nicole nodded and softened her features.  She could understand that feeling of loneliness so she slid her bag of chips in front of her new ‘friend’ as a peace offering.

“Thanks.” She said and grabbed one out of the bag.

“I’m Nicole.”

“I’m Rosita.  But you can call me ‘Rosie’ if you want.”

Both girls started talking about biology and what they could do for their end of year project when two more bodies suddenly occupied the table with their own lunch trays. To Nicole’s surprise it was Jeremy and Waverly

“Hey, jelly bean. Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, um. Waverly. Jeremy. This is Rosita, she’s in my bio class.”  They all exchanged the typical pleasantries and sat down to their food.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.” Waverly acknowledged.

“Yeah…first day.  And um, ‘jelly bean’?” Rosita giggled.

“Ugh god. My aunt calls me that.” Nicole threw her head back dramatically. “I was hoping that particular nickname would stay confined to my neighborhood.”

“Don’t get all bent out of shape, red. It’s cute and it actually kind of fits you.”

Waverly looked on at the two girls innocently bickering back and forth and immediately felt out of place.  Jeremy’s nose had been stuck in a book since they sat down so she may as well have been alone.

“I’m gonna get going.” She interrupted. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“Tonight?” Nicole asked.

“Um, yeah. Sally invited me over for dinner.  If that’s not ok I don’t have to come.”

“No no. That’s totally fine.  Dinner is usually at 7:30.”

Waverly nodded and took her leave.  Nicole couldn’t help but notice they’d had awkward encounters all day.  First at her house, in class, in the hall, and now at lunch. It was like they wanted to reconnect but something was standing in the way.

“So what’s the story there?” Rosita asked.

“No story.  We’ve lived next door to each other forever.”

“What are you kidding? I could cut the sexual tension with a butter knife!”

“Hey, there’s no tension.  We just used to be friends and now I guess we’re trying to be friends again.”

“There’s definitely tension.”

Both girls whipped there heads around quickly to look at Jeremy because they’d honestly forgotten he was there at all.

“See, bookworm agrees with me.”

“The name is Jeremy and there’s nothing wrong with reading.”

“Never said there was. I like reading, but I’m more into biological and chemical science than engineering.”

Nicole found it odd that she suddenly found herself surrounded by people that were interested in some of the same things she was.  They talked about physics, biology, and even psychology and by the end of the lunch period she’d invited both of them to attend the lecture on radiation with her the next day after school.  Both of them had accepted excitedly.

She may have gotten off on the wrong foot with Rosita, but Nicole could tell that she would be a great friend.  And with her sense of humor she would more than hit it off with Doc.  For the first time in a long time Nicole didn’t feel alone and things were starting to look up. 

The only thing she had to worry about was the inevitable awkwardness of the dinner that had yet to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New character. Rosita Bustillos = Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat. Not to be confused with Cat Woman from the DC Universe!
> 
> Please keep in mind that i'm going to spend time developing all of these characters. I really like to give them a lot a dialogue so you can grasp what kind of person they are. So it'll take a few chapters to really get the ball rolling but I think it'll be worth it. Anyway, comments/feedback are ALWAYS encouraged. Thanks for reading!


	3. Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keeping my promise to minimum of 1 update a week!

Waverly was to arrive soon and Nicole was feeling nervous and she had no idea why.  This was the girl that became her friend when she first moved in with her aunt and uncle.  The best of friends at one point in their life.  Nicole was setting the dinner table and suddenly she got more nervous because she didn’t know where everyone would sit.  Of course, there were the normal seats of the occupants of the household but when Waverly came it could throw everything off balance.

“Ok that doesn’t even make since.” Nicole thought aloud.

“Talking to yourself?”

The redhead looked up and her cheeks were immediately covered in a blush.  Nicole had obviously missed the doorbell and her aunt leaving the kitchen to let Waverly in.

“Um yeah.  It’s an old habit.”

“Not one I remember.” Waverly responded.  They were both standing awkwardly still and neither of them knew why.  So, Nicole gestured to the seat across from her so her friend could sit.  Waverly simply hung her purse and coat over the back of the chair.

“I guess it’s a new habit then.  Would you like water or juice?”

“Water is fine, and I can get it.  Everything is in the same place, right?”

“Um yeah. I’ll just finish setting the table then.”

Waverly walked into the kitchen to get her water, making small talk with Sally while she put the finishing touches on the meal.  She made meatloaf and the regular sides for her household and remembering that Waverly is a vegetarian she also made spaghetti. She felt bad that she wasn’t more well versed in vegetarian dishes but Waverly was grateful that she even remembered.

Everyone took their seats and passed the food around in silence, digging in once they were satisfied with what was on their plates. Uncle Ned and Aunt Sally exchanged stories of how their individual days went.  Nicole wasn’t paying much attention because she couldn’t help but notice Waverly was staring at her. A lot.

“Are you ok?” Nicole asked her quietly as not to disturb her guardian’s conversation.

“Mhm.” She nodded her head and dropped her head low, almost in her plate.  She hadn’t eaten much at all.  More pushed the food around than anything.

“So, Miss Waverly.  We’ve missed you around here.” Ned stated.  His mustache moving around erratically as he chewed his food.

“I’ve missed being here.  I guess I kind of just drifted, um…I’m sorry.”

“I trust school is going well.  You’ve always been smart, kept Nikki here on her toes.”

“Yeah, all A’s. I’ll start AP classes next year.”

“I expected nothing less.” Nicole chimed in. Waverly was always incredibly smart, if Nicole were being honest she wouldn’t have gotten into science or the art of photography if it weren’t for Waverly.

“I’m sure Jelly Bean is doing well too.” The brunette smirked.  Everyone laughed at the use of the nickname and agreed that Nicole was of course doing well in school.

“Do you have anyone special in your life?” Aunt Sally asked. 

Waverly locked eyes with Nicole then and gave a firm “Nope.” Popping the ‘P’ at the end.

“Have anyone in mind?”

“Not really.” She said, still staring at the girl across the table.

“You hear that, Nikki?” Nedley asked. “She’s single why don’t you make a move?”

Nicole felt her eyes nearly bulge out of her head at the suggestion. “Uncle Ned! Really?”

“What? You’re the one that used to always run around saying you’re going to marry her one day.  I’m just helping you out.”

“This isn’t happening.” Nicole dropped her face in her hands and hoped a hole would open up in the floor and drop her into hell.

“I agree dear, you two would make a wonderful couple.” Sally said. “You’re already friends, you’re both beautiful, your uncle and I approve, and Nikki you’re the only person Waverly’s parents even let in the house.”

“Can we pleassseeee talk about something else?”

Nicole didn’t miss Waverly’s snickering from across the table during that whole interaction, and she also couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t seem to freak her out at all. After dinner and desert Nicole walked Waverly to the front door to say goodbye and that was when they heard it.  Ward yelling at the top of his lungs at Waverly’s mother.  The brunette immediately stiffened at the sound and she looked terrified. And before she knew what was happening, Nicole spoke.

“You can stay here.”

Waverly stayed silent but looked into Nicole’s eyes for the 100th time that night.  Tears burned the corners of her eyes as she began shaking.  The redhead grabbed her friend in a tight embrace and stroked her head.

“I’s ok... I’ve got you, Waves. You don’t have to go over there.”

Waverly let her tears come full force then and nearly jumped onto Nicole’s short lanky form. The redhead was only about an inch taller so there wasn’t much leverage but she held tight none the less. Her aunt and uncle peered in from the kitchen with inquisitive eyes and Nicole just nodded her head towards Waverly’s home and they understood instantly.  Sally pointed for Nicole to take Waverly upstairs and Ned began clearing the dishes from the table. That was normally Nicole’s job, but she needed to take care of Waverly right now.

“Come on.” Nicole said as she grabbed her friend by the hand. “I’ve got some extra clothes you can sleep in.”

The two teens made their way upstairs, Aunt Sally passed Nicole Waverly’s glass of water from the dinner table on her way up. Once they got to Nicole’s room, the brunette sat on the bed and wiped her face clean of the evidence of her distress.

“I can go home, Nic.”

“Absolutely not.” The redhead had already changed into her pajamas and shuffled through her drawers for a big soft T shirt and some shorts before collapsing next to Waverly on the bed.

“I don’t want to intrude.”

“It’s not an intrusion if I offered. You’re staying here just like old times.”.

“Normally I can handle it, you know? But I just…I’m scared.”

Nicole could pick up that something had happened but she wasn’t sure what so she took a guess.

“Waves? Did…Did one of them…hit you?”

She just laughed and shook her head. “You always were a perceptive one.”

“Oh Waverly.” Nicole said, and wrapped her arms around the brunette.

“It was my dad.” She started as she sunk into the redhead’s arms. “I came home after school a couple weeks ago and he was drunk, as usual. He told me he hated me because I look just like my mother. I apologized and tried to go to my room. But he grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards. ‘you think you’re better than us because you do good in school.’…that’s what he said before I felt the back of his hand hit my face.”  Waverly started shaking and Nicole instinctively held her even tighter. The bones in the brunette’s shoulder were piercing her chest but she didn’t mind.

“After the first hit came a second and a third. And then it was both hands.  I tried to leave, but he caught me and…and it got worse so now I’m afraid to sleep in my own home.”

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“Because if I did I wouldn’t have anywhere to go.  Both my parents are drunks and I’m still 14, I’d go into the system.”

“What about your sister?”

“Wynonna’s not coming back.  She left for good reason.”

“Waves, you can’t stay there.  Not when that’s going on.”

“I have to, Nikki.  It’s either there where I can come and go as I please or I go to a home where I’m restricted and possible treated worse.  That was the first time my dad ever raised a finger to me.  Normally he completely ignores me and I’m ok with that.”

“if that’s what you really want then ok.  But if you ever suspect anything just come over, my aunt and uncle will let you in even if I’m not here.  They love you.”

“I know…and apparently so do you.” She smirked. “So, you wanted to marry me, huh?”

“T-that-that-that was a long time ago!”

“So, you’re saying it’s true?” she smiled.

“You’re never going to let this go, are you?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Jelly Bean.”

Waverly stood up and grabbed the shirt she’d be sleeping in.  She stripped her shirt off in front of Nicole and giggled when the redhead’s cheeks turned color and nearly matched her hair.  Clearly it was a test and Nicole failed it.  Nicole glanced over Waverly’s topless (save for a bra) form and frowned at how frail she looked.

“Waves, I need you to be honest with me.”

“Yeah, ok. Shoot.” The brunette slid the large shirt over her head and tossed her pants off into a corner before climbing into bed. She chose to skip wearing the shorts.

“Are you getting enough to eat?”

“You know, I really wish you couldn’t tell me my entire life story just by looking at me.”

“I’m just worried about you.”

“I know and I really appreciate it Nicole.  But I’ll be ok.”

Waverly kissed Nicole soundly on the cheek and got under the covers.  For the first time in a long time she felt safe so sleep came almost instantaneously for her.  Nicole stayed up for just a little longer looking at her friend before succumbing to sleep herself.

* * *

 

 

“This, my friends, is the future. Radioactivity has always been life threatening but the biologists, chemists, researchers, and doctors here at Oscorp has found a way to scientifically modify the radiation on a molecular level to enhance the human body. This is huge! We’re talking about self-healing here guys. No more colds, no more flu, broken bones healed in a matter of days instead of 2 months, no more cancer, no more aids, no more acne…”

The speaker at the radiation symposium was very obviously passionate about his work and Rosita wasn’t buying it.

“Laying it on thick, isn’t he?”

“Just a little. He hasn’t even told us how it’s possible yet.” Nicole replied. “I’m not sure how I feel about it if it’s apparently still in the testing phase.”

“Why don’t we have a little look around then?”

“What do you mean?” Before she could get an answer, the dark-haired woman was walking towards a door that said ‘Restricted’ in big red letters. “Rosie!” Nicole called after her. “Rosie!” she sprang up and chased after her.

“Where are you going?”

“To have a look around. You can stay with Jeremy if you want.”

“He’s asleep!”

“Good. Then he won’t miss anything.” The dark-haired girl smirked and swiped a key card in the slot by the door.

“Wha-Where did you get that?!”

“Shut up and get in, Red.” Rosita said with an annoyed tone. “I swiped it off one of the chicks that walked by. And I got one for you too, Pin it on your shirt.”

“I can’t believe we’re breaking and entering.”

“Oh hush, if you were really so against this then you wouldn’t be over here.”

Nicole just shrugged and walked through the restricted door. Rosita was right, her curiosity trumped her morals in this moment. So, the two teens walked the various halls of the lab and no one looked at them curiously. Probably because no one really knew who worked there and who didn’t, there were thousands of employees.

“Holy shit. There are cats in this room…looks like a machine is injecting them with something.  I’m gonna check it out!”

“Rosie! Rosie, no we’re just here to look.”

Rosita rolled her eyes and walked towards the door Nicole was standing in front of.  She took the keycard that was attached to Nicole’s shirt, swiped it and shoved her inside closing the door behind her.

Nicole squealed at the forcefulness of it and sighed.  She was In so much trouble.  Her worries about getting caught was the last thing on her mind however when she realized where she was…it was a room full of bugs.  There was a whirring sound coming from what looked like a large generator in the center of everything.  And there was a machine with a small needle injecting each insect and bug with something. 

“Whoa.” Nicole said out loud.  There was a table to her left full of glass cages.  One of them had ants, another had roaches, one had crickets and there were grasshoppers, flies, water bugs, caterpillars, butterflies, and even spiders.

In the cage with the spiders there was a large egg sack.  One that was much larger than any spider should produce and it caught Nicole’s eye. She walked over to it and looked inside…the babies were about to hatch. The whole nest wiggle one way and then waggled the other and soon enough a flood of red baby spiders spilled into the glass box. Their mother was in a corner wrapping another type of insect in a web probably waiting for her children to be able to give them their first meal.  There were maybe 30 of them heading towards the corner but they didn’t stop at the web trapped insect…much to Nicole’s surprise they attacked their own mother.  She was eaten almost instantly.

“That’s bizarre.”

It was actually fairly common for animals and insects of many species to eat their parents or the parents to eat the kids but the way in which they attacked was what rattled Nicole.  She would do more research on the later but for now the cage with the lady bugs was more important.

 

They seemed less interesting…lethargic even. So, she moved around the room for another few minutes noticing that none of the bugs were as active as the 8 legged creatures.  She began to feel itchy everywhere and chalked it up to the creepy feeling of being in a room full of bugs.  Her legs felt the effects first and she decided to have one more look at the spiders before vacating this particular room.  When she went back she noticed there were only 3 left inside and they were fully grown. 

“No way.  That’s…that’s impossible. Maybe there’s another one.”  She scanned the room briefly before hearing a popping sound. “Shit.” She thought someone was coming and quickly began thinking of a good story to tell because it would be hard to talk her way out of this one.  A sharp pain in her hand made her scream out softly in pain.  She looked at it and saw two fairly large holes and blood prickled to the top.  Another sharp pain found her ankle and then another on her neck. 

Nicole collapsed to the ground and her blood felt like it was burning, but she couldn’t make a sound and had no control over her body. Her organs felt as if they were being ripped out and sewn back in her body.  She only slightly registered the presence of someone else in the room next to her and being led outside.

“Nicole?” she heard vaguely. Somehow, she’d made it outside and Rosita was standing in front of her probably asking what was wrong but she couldn’t decipher what it was over the sweat that coated her body and the rampant body heat.  Suddenly she felt hyper aware of everything.  It was like the city was screaming at her and she needed to get away. So, she ran.

Nicole sprinted for probably the first time in her life and the wind whipped through her hair and her eyes watered from the speed she was running.  The wind cooled her body and she had a rush of adrenaline that made her want to run more.  She ran probably a mile before tripping over a box she didn’t see and crashing into a fruit cart and knocking everything over.

“Hey! You have to pay for that!” Someone yelled.

“I’m sorry, it was an accident. I was um…I was in a rush.”

“Well well well… if it isn’t 4 eyes.”

Nicole rolled her eyes and huffed a large breath. “Tucker…”

“I wasn’t kidding, dork. You have to pay for that. This shop belongs to my folks and we need the money.”

The redhead stood up and dusted herself off. “I don’t have any money, Tuck. You of all people know how much we struggle.”

“I don’t care.” He snarled and grabbed Nicole by the arm.  She instinctively pushed him by the chest and traveled backwards further than she expected.  It even seemed like it hurt him a little. “Looks like I’m going to have to finish what I started.” He looked angry…like he had snapped.  So, Nicole took that as her queue to leave.

“Gotta run!” she said and sprinted in the direction she was traveling before.  She could hear footsteps behind her…Tucker was chasing her.  She forgot momentarily that he was on the track team.  “Shit.”

They ran two blocks and the taller boy still hadn’t caught up to her yet but was pacing dangerously close he yelled out to her in frustration repeatedly but the girl never stopped, she wouldn’t let Tucker catch her and beat her up easily.  The left side of Nicole’s body felt tingly, especially by her ear.  Her body ducked to the side and no later did she see a phone whip in front of her. Tucker was angry enough to throw his phone at her.

They kept running and Nicole decided to take a shortcut to her house through a familiar alley.  She could cut through here and be there in no time.  The running was new to her and she quickly started getting tired.  She could see the end of the alley but with it was a new gate, one she’d never seen before.  She hadn’t been through there in months so there was no telling how long it’d been there.  She thought of what she would do next and started to slow down.  Tucker was within arm’s length and she felt fear surge through her body.  Nicole’s legs, of their own accord, propelled her into the air.  She grabbed onto the new gate midway and then onto a nearby dumpster.  With ease, she was able to leverage her hands on top of the tall gate and swing her legs over and land painlessly on the other side.

She laughed at the amazed look on Tuckers face and continued sprinting the remaining 2 blocks to her house.  Once at the front door she stopped moving and discovered that her whole body was shaking.

“Nicole? Are you ok?” It was Waverly standing at her own front door.  Probably just getting home from cheerleading practice.  Nicole was about to respond that she was fine, but she most definitely was not.  She felt dizzy and hot all over again and the last thing she remembered was the grass on her front lawn cushioning the impact of her fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No new characters just more development. What do you think of Waverly and Nicole's new/old relationship/friendship?


	4. Damage

Nicole woke up in her bedroom with an electric blanket wrapped around her torso, she could see from the alarm clock on her nightstand that it was 4 in the afternoon, she’d really slept the whole day away.  She grumbled some and yawned the rest of the sleep out of her body. The events of the previous day came flooding back and it didn’t seem real.  Running away from Tucker and managing not to get caught seemed like a miracle. But there were still gaps in her memory, the last thing she remembered was looking at the ladybugs in the lab at Oscorp. And then she was running down the block and ran into Tucker.  After getting away from him she woke up at home in her own bed.

Nicole shed her blankets and swung her legs over the side of the bed.  It was almost as if she floated into an upright position.  Her body felt odd, not bad by any means but still odd.  When she stood up it was even more odd because she could barely feel the weight of her own body putting pressure down in the soles of her feet or her ankles or her knees. The redhead rose up on her tippy toes and back down a few times in rapid succession. “huh” she said aloud. “nothin.”

Nicole’s phone rang suddenly and she jumped out of fear. Her feet coming off the ground was expected since she had a history of being jumpy, but what she didn’t expect was to hit her head on the ceiling or for part of the ceiling to crack and crumble on to her floor. Nicole looked around her room and saw that everything was more vibrant than usual: the posters on her wall, her Captain America bed comforter, the temperature in the room was more noticeable, the sounds outside on the street, and even her phone ringing.

“Oh shit.” She remembered her phone and was able to reach it before the call went to voicemail.

“Hello hello. You’ve reached YOLO enterprises, here to satisfy all of your existential crisis needs how may I swag you out this afternoon?”

“You must have hit your head harder than they told me.”

“You’re always ruining the mood, Doc.  Why can’t you ever just play along?”

“I’ll play along when you make sense, Haught. I called to see if you were finally awake.”

“Obviously I am.”

“Good, you’ve missed quite a bit at school.  What did you do to Tucker? He’s been losing his shit all week!”

“Wait…all week? What are you talking about? Today is Saturday.”

“Oh contraire.  Today is Thursday.  You’ve been out cold for days.  And when I say cold I do mean cold.  Your temperature dropped to 65 degrees.”

“65 Degrees? Doc that’s not even possible.”

“Apparently it is.  There was a doctor at your house and everything.  Took your temperature with 6 different thermometers. Your vitals were completely stable so your being alive is a complete mystery.”

“This is so weird.” Nicole thought out loud. “Doc, I gotta go.  I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Ok.  Need a ride?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Suit yourself.  Later, Haught.”

The phone clicked and Nicole tried to process all the information she’d just been fed as she slid her phone into her back pocket.  She’d been out cold for almost a week, and out cold literally meant ‘cold’ if her temperature had dropped to below 70 degrees.  A knocking on her door pulled Nicole out of her thoughts and she instinctively yelled. “Come in!” But no one walked through the door.  She repeated herself a bit louder and when there was no response the redhead walked over and turned the knob herself, surprisingly no one was there.

As if on instant replay, the sound of her door opening rung through her ears again but this time she heard her aunt Sally speaking.  It was as if she was right in front of her, but Nicole just knew that her aunt was downstairs at the front door.  And somehow, she knew the wind was wiggling the door back and forth just a bit.  It was like she could just feel her surroundings, like the natural vibrations of the walls and all other objects (inanimate or not) were caressing her skin and telling her what was going on in the vicinity.

“Oh dear you’re here every day at 4:30 like clockwork.”

“I hope that’s ok, I’m just worried about her.”

“Of course it is.  Go on up, she’s in the same place you left her.”

“Thanks.”

It was Waverly. Nicole felt her heart warm at hearing the girl came to check on her every day.  She truly had her friend back and she couldn’t be happier about it.   Waverly and Sally finished their short conversation and Nicole could hear the brunette’s favorite pink boots traipsing up the stairs.  The red head looked around not sure what exactly she should do so she closed her door gently and backed away to appear like she wasn’t expecting a visitor.  The plaster on the floor wasn’t exactly a deterrent from recent activity but she didn’t have time to deal with that so she pulled her phone out of her pocket and non-chalantly started shuffling through her string of missed text messages.  All from Doc, Waverly, Rosita, and Jeremy.  4 friends.  4 people that cared enough about her to text every day, sometimes 3 times a day.

Waverly opened the door to Nicole’s room without knocking and squealed when she saw the redhead on her feet.

“Nicole!” She yelled. “Oh my god.”

The small girl ran over and flung her arms around Nicole’s neck basically hanging from it and burying her nose in her friend’s neck.  The force normally would have knocked Nicole onto her butt or off balance at minimum but she was solid as a brick wall.  She returned the hug tenderly and blushed because she could feel every part of Waverly’s body against hers. And that meant EVERYTHING: a shirt, bra, jeans, lacy thong underwear and a sweater couldn’t hide the curves of her friend’s body from Nicole’s new found senses.

“Hey, Waves. Uh, what’s up?” Nicole said.

Waverly pulled away and the smile on her face turned to slight confusion. “Nic…did you…grow?”

The redhead frowned and looked at Waverly, while normally they were more or less eye to eye.  Nicole was now looking directly at the now shorter girl’s forhead. “Huh…this is just a really weird week. I guess so?” she answered.

“An even better question is what are you doing out of bed?”

“I just woke up.” Nicole walked over to her bedroom door and pressed it shut with the palm of her hand, not wanting her aunt and uncle to know she was awake yet.  She leaned against it and furrowed her brow before continuing. “Hey, Waves. What happened? I remember coming home and seeing you...then nothing.”

The brunette walked over to Nicole and slid her palm against the space under Nicole’s ear before letting it fall to her side while saying.

“You scared the shit out of me is what happened.  I was going in the house and when I looked over at you, you were sweating like crazy and you passed out.  Hit your head really hard on the pavement. And when you didn’t wake up right away…it’s been days Nicole.  Why wouldn’t you wake up?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Waverly leaned onto the door knob to brace herself but jolted her hand away immediately and frowned.  When she looked at it  Nicole was surprised to see that it was completely crushed into the shape of a hand.  It was like what she did to aluminum cans after she finished a soda. “Bizzare”

“Yeah…seems to be the theme of the week.  You passed out for no reason, your body temperature dropped to inhuman temperatures, you were essentially in a coma for a week, you grew an inch, and…you’re not wearing your glasses.  Can you even see me? I know you’re blind as a bat.”

Nicole touched her face and realized that she was not wearing her glasses and everyone that knew her knew she wasn’t good with contacts and swore never to try them again. Nothing made sense to Nicole anymore, it was like she didn’t know herself.

“And there’s plaster on the floor? What happened to your ceiling?”

“Honestly, I’m as confused as you are.  I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

“Maybe you should get back in bed and I’ll call your doctor.”  Waverly pulled out her phone and sat on the redhead’s bed with her back turned to make the call.

Nicole sighed her agreement and took a step towards her bed but a cracking sound and a jerking of her arm stopped her from moving. “what the hell” she said under her breath.  Looking at her hand that was still splayed on the door, she could see a large round crack in the wood surrounding her palm.  It was protruding out like someone had punched a hole from the other side or…her hand was stuck and pulled it out, like a suction cup.  Nicole jiggled her hand and panicked as her hand stayed stuck to her door. “shit” she grunted. It was like she was superglued.

Waverly turned and mouthed “are you ok?” . Nicole plastered a smile on her face and nodded. She took a deep breath and decided to think logically about it.  If her hand wouldn’t come directly off the door, maybe some pressure and directionality would do the trick.  As if on instinct, Nicole pressed her hand in and swiped down.  It came off like nothing.  But there was white paint stuck to her palm.  Something to deal with later.

“Um, Waves. I need to.  I gotta go ok?”

Nicole found herself running again but this time it was down the stairs. And she could clearly hear Waverly chasing after her and calling her name.

“Nicole?” Nedley asked surprised as his great niece whipped past her in a flurry.

“Nicole, wait!” Waverly screamed from up the stairs.

“Hold it there, Nicole Haught.   I mean it!” Aunt Sally  spoke in her most boisterous tone.  That meant business, so the redhead stopped in her tracks and slung her head down.  Mostly in fear.

“Sit down!” She boomed.

“I’ll just see you later, Nicole.” Waverly said as she walked towards the exit.

“No, you stay.” Ned said sternly.  “I heard your folks fighting last night, you’re to stay here where I know you’re safe.  Go up to Nicole’s room and start your homework.  Dinner is at 7, I’m ordering pizza.”

“Yes, sir. And um…thank you.” The brunette responded and escaped up the flight of steps taking them two at a time.

Nicole along with her aunt and uncle sat in silence for far too long.  It was clear that Ned wasn’t sure if he wanted to hug the redhead or yell at her.

“I...heard I was asleep for a while..”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?!”  Sally screamed

“Uhh…no?”

“A lot!”

“Ok.  Aunt Sally, this would be a lot easier if I knew what you were talking about.”

“You’re telling me you don’t remember what you did?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

“Sally, dear. She was unconscious for almost a full week maybe she actually doesn’t remember?” Uncle Ned chimed in.  It was clear that whatever Nicole had done wasn’t nearly as important to him, but the fact that she was awake and well brought him joy.

“Your little ‘exploration’ down at Oscorp Industries was caught on camera.  They came directly to us instead of calling the authorities and asked us to pay for the damage.”

Nicole’s heart started racing.  She was indeed in a lot of trouble. “Wait hold on.  I admit I…snuck in.  But I didn’t touch a thing. What damage are they talking about?”

“We saw the video, Nicole! You pulled all the cages off the shelves and tore their whatsitmabob to bits!”

“Whatsitmabob?”

“Don’t get smart with me!”

“Ok ok. I just don’t remember touching anything.  I was in there looking at the spiders and then I looked at everything else and then I went back to the spiders and that’s…that’s when…holy shit.”

Nicole’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head.  She remembered just then that she’d been bit by those spiders.  6 of them to be precise, it was like she could remember the pain of it all.  The pain of the bites and the burning afterwards, like all the blood in her veins were replaced with acid and then…yeah.  She was trying to clutch to anything to stay upright and that must have been when she knocked everything over.

“Fuck, I did it.”

“Language please.” Ned said softly

“I’m glad your memory has come back to us.  Your uncle and I didn’t raise you to be a vandal! We raised you to be good!”

“I know, and I’m sorry.  I really am.  I’ll get a job, I’ll do what I can to pay off the damages.”

“Oh no need to worry about that.  You already have a job.  You’ll be a high school Intern at the Lab.  I’ll call them and tell them you can start tomorrow after school.”

“Wh-how? It’s almost impossible to get a spot in their program.”

“You can thank Waverly.  She was here when we heard and was able to talk them into a deal.  You’ll be an unpaid intern for the next 6 months.”

“Unpaid huh?”

“You go to school, you go to work, you come home.  You’re grounded for a month.”

Nicole simply nodded. Her aunt never really got angry but she was now which meant that she was both disappointed and embarrassed.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you.  It wont happen again.”

“It better not.  Now go take a shower, you stink.”

“And we’re going to call your doctor.” Nedley said after her.

* * *

 

 

Nicole had grown accustomed to the new feel of her body and came to the conclusion that whatever happened to her had to do with the spiders, so she took the liberty of calling herself a “Spider Mutant”.  Maybe she would be considered like one of the X-Men now and that would be pretty cool, but maybe it was still a little premature.   The full spectrum of her newfound ‘powers’ weren’t fully discovered yet.  Nicole took notes every time she noticed something different about herself.  So far the list is.

  * Super Hearing
  * Hyper Sensation/Perception
  * Heightened Sense of Smell
  * Strength (Not yet determined to be super)
  * Sticky hands and feet (possibly for climbing walls)
  * Ability to jump 6 feet in the air
  * Fast healing
  * Nearly insatiable appetite/ extreme craving for red meat
  * High tolerance to extreme heat and cold
  * New formulation of bicep and quadriceps muscles
  * 20/20 Vision if not better



Nicole had hoped to make it to a park to really let loose and test her abilities but that would have to wait.  It was Friday.  5pm and time for Nicole to report for duty at Oscorp Industries.  She walked up to the front desk and showed her ID.  She was provided a badge and key card, this time her name and picture were on it instead of someone else’s.

“You can go up the elevator, make a right at the second hall and Mr. Henry’s office will be all the way at the end.  His name is on the door.”

Nicole nodded her thanks to the receptionist and followed the directions to the office she’d visited exactly 6 times in the past.  Jack Henry was Doc’s father.  Genius scientist/workaholic/amazing humanitarian/ultra-loving dad/ CEO of Oscorp.  He was amazing, and had he known what happened probably would have told whoever was directly beneath him to just forget about it.  But Nicole wasn’t one for handouts, she did the damage and she would own up to it. Once reaching the end of the hall Nicole knocked on the door and heard the familiar voice tell her to enter.

“Nicky!” the older man exclaimed.

“Mr. Jay, it’s so good to see you.” 

Nicole started calling him that after he told her to address him as ‘Jack’ instead of the oh so formal “Mr. Henry” but a man of his status deserved more in Nicole’s opinion so they compromised and settled on ‘Mr. Jay.’  He looked the same, wearing his 3 piece suit, hair cropped short with a high fade and a thick beard-mustache combo.  He stood to greet the redhead, so she could see that he still wore a gold pocket watch and he had gold framed glasses to match.

“That it is, please have a seat.” Once she complied he followed and continued. “Seems you’ve destroyed my radioactivity room”

“That’s what you call it?”

“Nah, it’s something more complicated.  That just rolls off the tongue easier.  I’m no doctor I’m just a business man.” He smiled.

“To be honest I don’t know what happened. Did you hear I was out cold for almost a week? Whatever happened to me started in there.”

“I know you’re a good kid and would never do something like that on purpose.”

“Really?”

“I’ve known you your whole life…you know your father and I were best friends.”

“Yeah…I know. I really am sorry about everything. I’ll do what I can to work off the cost of the damage.”

“That’s not necessary. I’m the boss I can make this go away.”

“I thought you might say that.” Nicole smiled. “I pay my debts. No sweeping anything under the rug.”

“And I thought you would say that. Looks like we know each other quite well. In that case, please go see the lead intern. I have no idea what her name is but she seemed nice the few times I’ve spoken with her.  She’ll be in the main lab, it’ll say “Lead Intern” on her desk.  It’s the second biggest one in the room.”

“Thanks Mr. Jay.  I really appreciate this.”

Nicole took her leave and made her way to the lab and sure enough the second biggest desk, which was white and just a little too organized. There was a girl sitting with her back turned.  She had brown curly hair pulled up into a bun atop her head and a crisp white lab coat on.  She had beakers set out full of mysterious blue liquid, her left hand held a large dropper filled with yellow liquid, a pen occupied the fingers on her right hand which was resting on an already scribbled on Notepad.

“Um, hi.  I’m the new intern. I was told to report to you?” Nicole said it softly as not to frighten the girl.

“Yes.  Give me oneeee second.” She responded.  The intern squeezed two drops of the mysterious yellow liquid into all of the beakers and they all turned green before slightly bubbling and settling.  Out of the 7 on the desk 5 of them turned black, 1 turned clear, and the last stayed rich nature green color.  The curly headed girl scribbled down her notes and set her pen down after sighing. She turned in her chair, removed her safety goggles and grinned brightly at Nicole.

“Hey newbie.  I’m Shae.” She smiled and extended her arm for a hand shake.

“..h-hi.” Nicole gulped. Shae was very pretty. And her teeth were perfect and “face stars”

“Face stars?” Shae drawled in a question

“What?”

“You said ‘face stars’. I’m assuming that’s not your name?”

“Wow, I said that out loud totally embarrassing. Um, your freckles, I like your freckles. And my name is Nicole.” She took the hand that had stayed outstretched towards her and shook it for just a little too long before letting go.

Shae grinned again and Nicole thought she would absolutely die if she had to look at that all the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GREETINGS FROM THE SKY! For real, i'm posting this from an airplane right now. Jet Blue has free wifi for future reference yall.
> 
> Anyway, sorry i'm a day late! New character. Shae = Gwen Stacy.  
> 3 more hours on my flight so i'm gonna try to take a nap. Hope you all enjoyed!


	5. Adrenaline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for being a week and a half late (life got in the way). This is a short one but I will definitely be posting another this week.

It was amazing really.  When Nicole’s adrenaline was rushing everything seemed to slow down.  It was like that movie ‘Wanted’ with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, the fist coming at her face was so slow she actually had time to think about what she was going to do. So Nicole put her own right hand in front of her and grabbed the right cross that normally would have connected with her jaw.  It didn’t even hurt her palm, so she let it go and decided to let the next one actually connect with her jaw.  The worst that would happen was she’d get knocked out and it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.  It would actually be the 10th time this school semester that she was attacked while she was standing at her locker.  But this time instead of it being a random girl, it was Tucker himself.  And the fight lasted long enough for people to crowd around them.

Nicole could sense Tucker clenching his left fist by his side before winding it back behind his body and throwing it forward.  Again it was slow moving to her eyes and though her instincts told her to dodge it she wanted to see if her strength also transferred to things hitting her and not what she herself could break or lift.  Tucker’s fist hit her square in the jaw, on the sweet spot where normal people would instantly be knocked unconscious.  But Nicole didn’t even feel it, it was more like someone lightly scratched her.

“Sweet” she said out loud with a grin.

“YOU SHOULD BE ON THE FLOOR YOU FREAK!”

“You know, Tuck. I think you’re just mad because you’ve been trying to beat up a girl for the last 2 minutes and the first time you were actually able to land a hit it wasn’t anything more than a tickle.”

“I tried being nice.  But now I’m going to kick your ass. No more holding back!” the taller boy screamed

“Yeah. Mkay.” Nicole responded.

Her senses could pick up on the sudden spike of heat in his body as well as both of his fists clenching before he lunged forward throwing a barrage of punches.  Nicole avoided each of them with ease and honestly it was getting boring so she placed her hand on his chest to hold him back and if their arms weren’t equal in length his continuation of punches would have connected with her face.

“Maybe you should try again when you learn how to not fight like a little bitch.” 

She didn’t mean to sound so smug and obnoxious but it felt good to give her former friend, now bully, some pay back.  Nicole flicked her hand in a downward motion, using the strength of her wrist alone to send Tucker staggering back several steps.  The crowd around them split like the red sea and the tall lanky boy was caught by none other than Champ Hardy: standing next to him was Waverly looking shocked and confused…maybe.  Her face was unreadable and Nicole couldn’t care about that right now, what she had to worry about was Tucker whispering into Champ’s ear and the fact that both of them were probably about to attack her.

Nicole could dodge Tucker but Champ was different.  He wasn’t quite as tall but he definitely was built, he played both football and hockey, lifts weights, runs marathons, and is oddly enough excellent at parkour.

“Didn’t know you had it in you, Red.” Rosita silently slid beside Nicole before speaking and it scared her a little.

“He came at me, I didn’t even hit him.”

“No need to get defensive, I saw the whole thing.  You’re better than me though I would have knocked him out immediately.”

“Looks like I might have to.”

Tucker and Champ walked towards the two girls with a renewed sense of confidence.  They were going to tag team her, that much was obvious.  Waverly followed closely behind and, with her exceptional hearing, Nicole could hear her trying to talk them both out of it.  She pleaded with Champ, asking him not to hurt her best friend and if he did then any hope of them getting together would be out the window. 

“I could help…” Rosita offered.

“No, this is my fight.  They’ve been harassing me for years, it’s time to deal with this once and for all.”

“Whatever you want, Red.”

“If they start to pulverize me then you can feel free to rescue me.” Nicole smiled briefly and turned her attention directly in front of her.  Waverly stood between her and the two boys looking worried.

“Nicole, why do you look like you’re about to fight them?” the brunette asked

“Because I am…I need to do this for me.”

“I don’t want you getting hurt, you just got out of a coma.”

“Get out of my way Waverly.” Champ interrupted.

Nicole placed her hand on Waverly’s shoulder and gently pushed her in Rosita’s direction.  She hoped Rosita would hold her friend back if necessary.  The first punch came quick and Nicole was able to avoid it even though she wasn’t focused.  Champ had already moved swiftly behind the redhead and grabbed onto her arms.  He held them as tight as he could behind her back and encouraged Tucker to start on in on her punishment.

“Come on bro, I got her! Teach this geek a lesson!”

“Just hold her still.”

Tucker walked forward and slowly…pervertedly looked Nicole up and down.  It was unsettling to almost everyone around them.  

“You know…you don’t look half bad without your glasses.  Maybe you’d have had a chance with me if-“

“Don’t even finish that sentence.” Nicole interrupted. 

She was trying to go along with their little game but based on those few words it was going to go too far.  So she pulled her arms away from behind her back with ease and, as Doc would call it, pimp slapped Tucker.  She didn’t know why slapping someone with the back of your hand was so satisfying. 

Nicole felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end and tension was rising in her back, that meant someone was coming from behind her so she squatted and spun on one leg to do a windmill kick, knocking Champ off of his feet and onto the floor.  He rose up quickly and for the first time Nicole decided to close her fist and throw a punch.  Her first instinct was to go for the face but if she could unintentionally squeeze a doorknob and crumble it then someone’s face would be much more fragile.  The red head took a deep breath to calm down and when Champ charged at her she placed her left hand on one of his shoulders, her right hand now in a loose fist simply gut checked him.  Nicole estimated she used about a quarter of her actual strength and that was still enough to knock the muscular boy over, he rolled into the fetal position and groaned in pain.  Clearly he wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.

“Stop this now!” Nicole heard from behind her.  Waverly inserted herself, of course, trying to block the taller boy's path.  She turned and saw Tucker had a hard cover text book in his hands.  He lifted it to hit the brunette and Nicole took off in a sprint towards them but she was too far away.  Waverly winced in anticipation and the book collided with her arm, she screamed out in pain before bracing herself on the wall of lockers next to her. 

Nicole was filled with so much rage she half way blacked out.  All she knew was she could feel energy surging through all the muscles in her body and her that she suddenly had a compulsive need to wrap her hand around Tucker’s throat.  Turns out she was already doing it, leaning over the boy who had somehow gotten laid out on the floor.  His face was turning purple and he was trying desperately to gasp for air.

“You’re gonna kill him! Nicole, stop! That’s enough!” Rosita managed to pull Nicole out of her frenzied state and she backed off the boy.  She watched as he flipped himself over to catch his breath.  The redhead hyperventilated and looked at her hands and wondered if she was actually capable of killing someone. 

“Fuck” she said under her breath.  She looked around at the once rowdy crowd of students.  They weren’t shouting and cheering they were all staring at her blankly.  And Waverly…. she stood out the most, with a terrified expression written on her normally gentle features. 

“Waverly?” Nicole tried, but she backed away and shook her head.

“I don’t know who you are anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for typos. I don't have a beta.


	6. Power

"New Girl! You're late." Shae looked at the watch on her left wrist and shook her head in disapproval. "This is only your second week, you're pushing your luck."

"I know. I'm sorry, I got...caught up at school."

"Caught up huh? Did you at least remember to get coffee for everyone? This is around the time they all start to crash."

"Fuck" Nicole sighed

"That's ok, newbie. I've got you this time, but only because you look so depressed."The darker girl pulled out her phone and started typing.  "GrubHub really is a savior around these parts."

"Thank you.Really, I've gotta keep this job."

"Don't mention it and don't screw up again."

Shae began barking her orders as usual.She wasn't really rude about it, it was just what needed to be done.If Nicole had questions Shae always gladly answered.Her motto was there were no stupid questions, the stupid thing to do is try and work on something without knowing how to properly execute it and messing things up.

 

The redhead had been filing and thinking about her behavior earlier that day. She didn't start the fight but she was the one that took it too far and made everyone afraid of her.News travels fast around the halls of that school and before long, people were cringing at the sight of her.

"Your moping is really harshing my mood, Nicole."

"Wh-I am not moping."

"Yeah you are.What's wrong?"

"Nothing..."

Shae stopped pounding at the keys on her computer and looked around her monitor at the redhead.

"Just tell me, you'll feel better I promise."

Nicole took a deep breath and relented. "There was a fight today...that's why I was late.I was um....fighting."

Shae smiled with intrigue and nodded for her to continue.

"It was two against one, completely unfair odds but I still did good you know? But I took it too far."

"Too far?" the darker girl asked.

"Yeah...I um.One of the guys got mad that he couldn't knock me out so he attacked my friend.I got pissed and I don't know.I guess I threw him on the ground and then I started choking him."

Shae laughed then and cheered. "That's the way!"

"No, it's not. Just because I can over power someone doesn't mean I should.Now everyone is all freaked out."

"Nicole." Shae said as she got out of her seat to walk over to the redhead and sit in the seat next to her. "I get what you're saying and you're right.Just because you can beat someone up doesn't mean you should...but that only applies when it's without reason.If you say this guy attacked you and then attacked your friend you were well within your rights."

"Well yeah but-"

"Nope. I don't want to hear it.You stood up for yourself and for your friend.If you have the ability to protect someone then you should, otherwise you're part of the problem."

"Part of the problem?" Nicole asked. "What problem?"

"I don't even know where to start. But we live in New York.Life here is crowded and expensive, that's a problem.The bad people are another problem.The bullies.Do you have any idea what the crime rate is here?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Nicole was aware how unsafe the streets of New York could be. It was the reason she never stayed out too late and avoided alleys are anywhere else something sketchy could happen unseen.

"It has everything to do with it.Good people turn into bad people because no one stands up for them and shows them any good, and already bad people get worse because no one has the gall to step to them.It's why big kids pick on little kids and why men bully women and why racism is still a problem and it's why gay people still get bullied.Everyone let's it slide.Change always starts with one opposing opinion but make no mistake, you're on the right side."

"So...choking out the school bully was the correct choice?"

Shae smiled and silently went back to her desk to get back to work. 

 

Something told Nicole the older girl knew that she'd said the right thing.And she had because for the duration of her shift and over the next couple of days Nicole had really thought about it and her eyes opened to everything around her.The little sparks of obvious hatred.The condescending comments boys made to their girlfriends, the underhanded racist jokes made on a daily basis...if Nicole were being honest she was guilty of a lot of the horrible things she saw going on.And she wondered if she ever made any poor tasted gender specific jokes to her friends...or if she said anything that could be perceived as racist to Shae.She was the only person of color that she personally knew, and that was something that concerned her as well.

 

\-----------------

It was Saturday finally.And Nicole found herself in detention for fighting...again.She had this new found need for violence it seemed, her new powers gave her all of this restless energy and sensitivity.Because she was able to hear everything going on in her school it wasn't hard to find whoever was getting bullied at the time.The redhead jumped between a plethora of people in the middle of a fist frenzy and it always started out with her just wanting to stand between them and break it up but somehow she always got pissed off enough to push someone into a locker or pin them to the ground.

"I can't believe you got us Saturday detention, Nicole."

"No one told you to jump into the fight, Doc."

"You're my best friend! What kind of person would I be if I didn't step in?"

"You'd be the kind that listened."

"And how is it that i'm all bruised up and you don't have a scratch on you?!" He asked incredulously.And it didn't look the best: his cheek was purple and he had a scratch over his eye.There was no telling the extent of the bruising to his ribs.

"I'm just better at it than you are."

"You'll be the death of me, Haught."

"Love you too, Henry."

The door to the nearly empty classroom opened and a string of jocks filed in, including Champ and his posse.At the end of that line, surprisingly, was Waverly.She looked sad and even more so when she spotted Nicole.

"Wave..." the redhead called out.She nodded her head and sat down to the left of her and fixated her eyes to the chalk board in front of her, never averting her gase.

"Hey..." the brunette said quietly.

"So are you still not talking to me?" Nicole asked.

"We were never not talking, Nicole.I've just been busy."

"Sure.Too busy to say hello but not busy enough to sneak in and sleep on my couch at night and leave before I even wake up."

"I won't stay at your place anymore then."

"No! That's not what i'm saying. Waves? Can you at least look at me?"

The smaller girl reluctantly gazed toward the redhead and sighed.

"Thank you...now can you at least look me in the eyes this time and tell me you're cutting me off instead of phasing me out."

"That's not what i'm doing!" she said defensively

"Well then what? I know I was kind of out of hand the other day and for a while everyone was calling me a freak.So are you ashamed of being around the school freak now?"

"You're not...stop saying that."

"Then what is it, Waverly?You promised this wouldn't happen anymore and you're doing it again."

The brunette shook her head and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Nicole turned to Doc and scoffed "can you believe her?"

"Looks like you hit a nerve.Go chase after her or whatever you girls do, i'm going to take a nap."He tipped the hat that was on his head forward enough to cover his eyes, leaving nothing but his stubbly facial hair showing.Nicole rolled her eyes and went in search of Waverly.

 

"Hey! Hey, Waves! Stop!"Nicole called from down the hallway.She ran at mid speed and easily caught up grabbing gently at her arm.

"Just leave me alone!" Waverly screamed and Nicole jumped back in shock, putting her arms up in surrender.

"Ok ok...I'm sorry, I just. I don't want to lose you again." Nicole hung her head.

"No, I'm sorry." Waverly walked towards Nicole and placed her hand gently on her face. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't think you're a freak.When I saw you choking Tucker I got scared.You know my dad has a horrible temper.And well...before Wynonna left, that's what he was doing to her.Daddy had slapped me so hard he left a hand print on my face and my lip was split.Wynonna punched him and told him off."

"Waverly I-"

"No let me finish." she breathed. "After she hit him, daddy tackled her . Sat on her chest and started choking her.He choked her until she passed out and then I hit him over the head with a lamp and called the police.They didn't do anything...because who cares about a poor family in Brooklyn?"

Nicole suddenly felt so horrible.She had essentially recreated one of Waverly's most horrible memories. "I'm so sorry.I didn't mean to take it that far, and honestly I wasn't going to.But he hit you, and I'll never just stand by and let you get hurt."

Waverly smiled lightly and laced her fingers with Nicole's."That's really sweet.And I'm sorry I was avoiding you...I just didn't want to think you were capable of something like that."

"Hey." Nicole said as she tilted Waverly's chin up. "I'm not malicious, just protective.I promise from now on to be careful even if I am stuck in that kind of situation."

"Thank you." the brunette smiled, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth and slid her hands around the taller girl's shoulders to hug her.Nicole gladly obliged and slid her lanky arms around Waverly's waist.

 

"Wow, newbie. Didn't know you were such a softie"

The two girls jolted apart at the sudden intrusion.

"Shae?" Nicole asked. "What are you doing here? You scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry, guess i'm sneakier than I thought."

"I'll say.But seriously what are you doing here?"

"Just using the bio lab.  It's quieter than the library or being at Oscorp."

"And you got the ok for this?"

"Well I'm McMahon's favorite student so he trusts me."

"Wait, you go to school here?" Nicole asked. "I thought you were in college!"

"I am, but only part time.I take half my classes here and half at the university."

Waverly watched on as the two girls had their conversation and she felt forgotten.Something about Nicole was different, and it wasn't bad.But Waverly remembered when even the sight of a pretty girl would make her freeze and tremble with sweat.But here she is talking to this obviously super intelligent, tall, gorgeous, prodigy like it's nothing.  Everything about the redhead was well...smoother.  And it made her that much more appealing.

"Waves...Waves." Nicole repeated. "You ok?"

"Um yeah, why?"

"You zoned out pretty hard. You sure you're good?"

"Positive."

"Ok...Well this is Shae.She bosses me around at Oscorp every day after school"

Waverly reached out to shake Shae's hand. "It's nice to meet you.I'm Waverly."

"Likewise.You're a lot prettier than Haught described."

Waverly looked to Nicole and blushed. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Seriously?Anyone with eyes can see that."

"Bleh." Shae rolled her eyes. "You two go back to flirting. I'll see you on Monday, Newbie. Do not be late and do not forget the coffee!"

Nicole laughed and put her arm around Waverly's shoulder.

"Come on, lets get back before we get in trouble."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, i'm sorry i've been gone so long! I went through a very long and painful breakup and then I went to Vegas to get away and it happened to be the same weekend as Clexacon! So I went to that and actually got to meet Dom and Kat a couple of times and they are seriously ridiculously nice. Like i didn't even think that level of niceness was possible. Kat held my hand and stared into my soul while she was talking to me so i'm still reeling from that even tho it was a week ago.
> 
> That being said, i'm feeling better and inspired to write a lot. So i'm gonna pump this story out! feed back and suggestions are appreciated.


	7. 'Friends'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Anotha one' *DJ Khaled voice.

"Ok, so what's your ultimate goal?" 

Nicole and Shae sat on the floor of their office with their backs against a large desk.  It was Thursday evening and everyone had left the lab already.  The two interns found themselves caught up in conversation and couldn't seem to tear themselves away from each other.  Shae had a stash of rocky road ice cream in one of the kitchens that they were indulging in and it was kind of hard to separate from the sugary substance as well.  Nicole hadn't eaten much that day and her new spidey genetics required much more calories than normal.

"My ultimate goal is....to be happy." Shae answered earnestly.

"That's so sappy." the redhead laughed. "I meant career wise"

"Yeah it's sappy, but it's true.  And if you want the cut and dry of it I want to be a doctor."

"You want to save lives."

"I'm good at biology and chemistry, and I like to think I'm good with people" she smiled

"You definitely are...good with people I mean.  And you're crazy smart: I mean you're only 16 and you're a senior in high school about to have your Associates degree."

"That's not much of an accomplishment if you ask me.  I set my mind to something and I’m going after it."  The darker girl scraped the bottom of the ice cream container and frowned at the little bit that was left.

"I think that's great.  What's the rush to finish so early anyway?"

"I told you I want to be happy.  One day I want a wife and kids...and maybe a cat.  If I’m in medical school and completing a residency all throughout my 20s and early 30s where's the time for family?"

Nicole's brows shot up to her hairline in shock.

"Ok so I’m a little shocked about the gay thing, but more shocked about the cat."

"I mean if you really think about it, the gay thing makes me more drawn to pussy." she smirked.  And both girls cracked up at the horrible joke.

"You're terrible."

"Oh I know.  But you like me anyway."

"I do.  Even if you do boss me around all day...you know um.  I'm gay too."

"Yeah, I know."

"What do you mean you know?! I've only ever told one other person!" Nicole said as she sat erect abruptly.

"Remember the first day we met? You kept staring at me and told me I was pretty about 10 times.  That was the first clue"

"Oh god." the redhead dropped her face in her hand out of embarrassment. "I'll just crawl in a hole a die now."

"No, it was flattering. I don't get complimented often."

"Well that's just crazy.  I mean look at you.  You're kind of ridiculously gorgeous."  Nicole blushed at the admission

"And you're sweet"

"Everyone always says that."

"Because it's true, Nicole."

"Eh, I guess...so what was the second thing that gave me away?"

"Your friend Waverly." Shae said with simplicity.  As if that alone answered the question.

"Uhh.  Care to elaborate on that?"

"You're obviously into her."  she answered and Nicole just stared blankly. "Oh come on, Haught.  You talk about the girl like she walks on water.  And I saw most of your little exchange on Saturday.  She's obviously just as into you."

"What? No. No. Waverly and I grew up next door to each other.  We're just good friends and she's currently involved with someone.  A boy."

"Hmm. 50 bucks says she doesn't really like him and she's just with him because it's safe, but the person she really wants is you."

"I'm not betting you anything and if that's the case why not say anything?"

"I don't know...why haven't you?"

"Because I don't like her like that.  And even if I did, it's not like I'm even on her radar."

"Well if you're sure about that then do we have a deal?" Shae stretched her hand in front of Nicole's face and waited for her to solidify their deal.

"Fine" the redhead shook the darker girl's hand. "What's the timeline on this?"

"Well from what you've told me about her and based on my observations I say she confesses her love in no more than 5 years."

"5 years?!"

"Love takes time, Haught." Shae grinned and stood from the floor collecting their trash.  "It's late, go home." she said, and was out the door without another word.

\--------------

 

Waverly was asleep on the couch in the living room when Nicole came down the stairs the next morning.  It was 5 o'clock, way too early to be awake but she was restless and needed to expel some of her energy, so she thought she'd try to go for a run.  

"I don't know, Sally.  This month is going to be tough with the extra mouth to feed and our niece is suddenly going through this growth spurt and needing new clothes.  Money was already tight as things were but now....I just don't know."

"We can't ask Waverly to leave, Ned.  The poor girl has nowhere to go."

"I know it isn't fair but I don't see what else we can do."

"I'll sell my car... it'll tide us over for a couple of months."

"Absolutely not, we were going to give that to Nicole when she was of age...We'll sell mine."

"But Ned you love that car, it's a classic."

"Exactly, I'll get more money for it.  And I do love the car...but I love my family more.  Hope you don't mind chauffeuring this old man around for a while."

\---------

After a few days of thinking Nicole decided to do something that was probably really stupid but on a particularly dark and cold Wednesday night, she decided that she was going to do it anyway.  So, Nicole put on her stretchiest pair of black jeans, a black tank top with her tightest sports bra, and a large hoodie that happened to be red.  It was kind of ridiculous looking but the hood was big enough to fit over her entire head without falling off.    She secured her high-top vans and her tie die ski mask before climbing out of the window.  Over the last couple of weeks she's been able to perfect wall climbing without falling or ripping out pieces of the wall or getting permanently stuck 60 feet off the ground.  

 

She stood atop the roof of her building listening to the city.  Her neighborhood was relatively quiet so she took a running start and began jumping from roof top to roof top, swung from one street light to the next, and climbed a couple of telephone poles until her ears picked up more activity.  Nicole could hear people in alleys making drug deals, trading weapons, planning robberies, going and coming from parties and then she finally picked up on the sound that she was after.  Hushed voices and the rustling of money.

'Remember, what happens here stays here' 'You and your opponent gotta match your play price.' ‘I’m gonna kick his ass tonight, I’ve been training.’ 'boss gets 20% of the winnings' ’club that shall not be named' 'password?' 'Unicorn Bubbles'

 

"Unicorn bubbles? What kind of a password is that for an underground fight club?" Nicole thought out loud.  It was odd but probably was a phrase that didn't scream 'hey I’m in a fight club'. She shrugged and jumped from the 5-story building she’d settled on to the pavement opposite the alley where the club was being held. Although she fell quickly, she still landed light as a feather.

"Alright, Haught.  Just knock out a couple guys and call it a night."  The redhead took a deep breath to calm down before reaching the door with the large burley bouncers.

"Is this the club that shall not be named?" she asked

"Depends on who's asking...you got the pass phrase?"

"Unicorn Bubbles."

The largest man, probably the one in charge, nodded before speaking.  "No weapons allowed.  Arms out and spread em.  Jimmy here is gonna frisk you."

Nicole nodded and did as she was told. She didn't have anything on her except her phone and the little bit of cash she had saved up from over the years.  Jimmy felt up and down both legs, around her ribs, as well as her arms before motioning for her to go inside.

"Obviously don't record anything and stay out of the way of the fights.  And never talk about fight club outside of fight club."

Nicole went down a flight of stares and through another set of double doors.  When the redhead entered the first thing she noticed was the repugnant smell. The body odor the blood the sweat, it all burned in Nicole's nose horribly.  There was obviously no type of ventilation, but she had to remember why she was there and push past it.  She observed for a while.  The more experienced fighters seemed to be separated from the intermediate and amateurs.  So she decided to try the amateurs first.  She stood and watched with her hood and mask still over her face.  Some guy named '9 Fingers' won the last 3 rounds. And his name was 9 Fingers because he literally had 9 fingers, missing the middle finger on his left hand.  He was muscular, a little more so than Champ, and about 5'10.  Only 3 inches taller than Nicole's newly measured 5'7.   How she managed to grow 4 inches in 2 months was beyond her but you wouldn't catch Nicole complaining.

"I've got next" she spoke up to the referee. 

"300 to enter with the amateurs.  If you win, it gets doubled and you gotta give 20% to the boss.  The rest is yours."

"I...I only have 200."

"Well then it's a no go kid. Unless you can find someone to sponsor you."

Nicole hung her head and swore under her breath 'fuck'.

"I'll throw in for him.  All 300, I'm tired of watching the same thing over and over."

Nicole turned around and was surprised to see it was Doc.  It took everything in her not to call out his name and reprimand him for being down here...but she was doing the same thing so there was no room for judgement.  Doc looked into her eyes and frowned a bit but ignored whatever he was thinking.

"Alright my man I'll tell you what.  I'll throw in $500 if you promise to win within 3 minutes."

Nicole smirked and decided to take advantage of the situation.

"Make it a thousand and I’ll win in 1 minute."

"You've got a deal.  What's your name?"

"Ummm, I guess I haven't thought about that.   How about Flex?" she spat out.

"Flex?" Doc furrowed his brow

"I've got good reflexes." she shrugged.

"Alright, Flex it is." the stubbly faced boy cleared his throat and announced that he was sponsoring the "new guy"

Nicole got into the middle of the circle to face her opponent, 9 Fingers.  She took a deep breath to compose herself and-nope, no time to think because there was a fist coming towards her face and she dodged easily enough and bounced back a couple of steps.  She surveyed the people around her and could see they were all confident in 9 Fingers, and Doc was chewing his nails because he had money riding on this.  Her opponent came back towards her and instead of making a spectacle she decided to use old reliable, the same move that put Champ Hardy on the ground.  So she dodged the barrage of fists coming towards her face, placed her hand on 9 Finger's shoulder to hold him back and punched him swiftly in the gut.  He went down immediately and coughed trying to wheeze some breath into his lungs.  The muscular man managed to get up on his knees and Nicole tapped him on the chin with her fist.

"Good night, big boy." she cooed as he fell unconscious. She turned towards Doc who was looking pleased but equally shocked.

Nicole walked over towards the ref and held out her hand to retrieve her prize.  He handed her the money and she asked who the boss was.  Not to her surprise the bald man pointed to Doc.

"Sponsored by the boss, huh?" Nicole said as she approached him.  She gave him 20% of her earnings and headed towards the door.

"Wait wait!" He called out. "Flex, hold on!"

Nicole stood still as Doc stood behind her and continued talking.

"We could do this together...you know, big leagues.  I buy you in and I get to keep my buy in plus 50% of the profits. That’s if you win."

"50?" the redhead turned around and crossed her arms. "I get in the ring and risk my entire life for half the earnings? I don't think so.  We stay at 20%

"Fair point...but we would be risking my money.  How about 35? Is that to your liking?"

"Ok 30% and we have a deal."

"Great. Can we start tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"If you fight big Tony and win that's an easy $5000."

"That....that could change everything." she thought aloud.

 

And everything did in fact change after that.  Nicole spent the next 3 days fighting and collecting money, paying her aunt and uncle's bills without them knowing and slipping cash here and there for them to find.  They always thought they were finding misplaced money, so no harm no fowl, right?  The only thing she felt bad about was Nedley's car, the person that bought it refuses to sell it back.  On her way to the abandoned warehouse basement she skipped from roof to roof trying to figure out how she would get the money to her guardians for them to buy a new car for themselves.  That was when she heard the scream.  Screaming in New York in the middle of the night wasn't anything out of the ordinary but this one was familiar.  She'd heard the same scream just a year ago from her bedroom.

"Waverly." she gasped and stopped in her tracks listening as hard as she could to pinpoint the girl's exact location but her ears weren't good enough. "come on come one come ON!" she growled.  All the hair on the right side of her body stood on end and that’s when she knew which way to go so she took off as fast as she could in the direction her body was guiding her.  It was hard to explain but it was like if she let it, her limbs could get her to where she needed to be.

"Just let me go!" Nicole heard her friend's voice again but this time it was closer.  She stopped in her tracks and looked down into the alley next to the building she was standing on and there she was.  Brown paper bag in hand being shoved around by two creepy looking guys; one with bleached blonde hair and the other...he only had 9 fingers.  Her instincts took over again and she dropped down between the creeps and Waverly.

"Who the hell are you?" the blonde one snarled.

"This is Flex..." 9 Fingers answered. "New kid down in the basement, been catching some real attention.  He beat Tony in 4 blows."

"4 blows huh? Well it's two against one right now, so I think we'll be ok." 

Nicole shook her head and sighed as both men ran towards her.  She knocked them around with ease a little before rendering them both unconscious.  She turned around to find Waverly looking petrified, the brown paper bag in her hand had fallen to the ground and the bottle of whiskey inside had shattered.

"Behind you!" She shouted. The redhead turned around to the blonde man wearing a cocky grin on his face and it took a moment to register but he had a knife in his hand, a knife that was halfway into her abdomen.  He yanked it out and Nicole felt a sharp pain shoot through her spine.  It appeared that her heightened senses also applied to pain...or maybe it didn't and she was just in shock from never having been stabbed before.  Nicole was able to stay on her feet and felt like maybe she'd be able to knock the guy out but 9 Fingers got up again too and he pulled a gun out of his pants.

"Shit" Nicole said under her breath.  Bullets weren't something she was willing to test out on herself at the moment so she grabbed Waverly and pulled her in close. 

"Hold on to me!"

"What?!" the brunette responded confused but did so anyway.  Slinging her arms around the taller girl's shoulders.

"It's time to go."

Nicole jumped as high as she could and found that the stab wound and added weight of a person reduced her jumping height by half.  But at least her ability to stick to walls hadn't diminished at all.  Once she was up ten feet Nicole hopped her way up the wall until she was on the roof.  

"Ok...How did you do that?" Waverly asked as she let go of her mystery savior.  There was no time for answers as Nicole heard the perpetrators making their way up the fire escape.

"No time." she said swiftly and scooped up the brunette bridal style and took off in a run.

"Hey hey hey! Where are you, oh my god!" she screamed as they bounced from one roof top to another.  Nicole was in pain but she refused to stop until she knew they were safe.

"Stop screaming, they'll hear." the redhead commanded.  And Waverly just ducked her head into the crook of Nicole's neck and shut her eyes trying to think of anything but this.  She didn't understand who this person was, how they could jump so high and so far or why they were helping in the first place.

It could have been 5 minutes or 5 seconds, Waverly didn't know, but when she built up enough courage she opened her eyes and saw that they were in her neighborhood and her savior was walking at a slow pace still holding her bridal style.

"How did you know where I live?"

"ID"

"Oh...that's um...you can put me down now"

And she did, gladly.  The pain in her gut was getting worse and her body no longer felt light as a feather. 

"Thank you for saving me.  And for bringing me home. It was really sweet of you."

Nicole just nodded her head as her home came into view.  She nodded her head and waved goodbye to Waverly as she went inside the Nedley household instead of the Earp one and that warmed her heart.  Now that the brunette was inside she needed to take care of herself and there was only one person that she could trust.

 

Nicole walked 3 miles to a small white house and based on the scent she was picking up she was in the right place.  Her nose led her to the back of the house to a window where the light in the room was pouring out.  She rid herself of her skii mask and hoodie and was left in her dark jeans and white tank top, both of which were soaked in blood.  Nicole pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed her 4th speed dial and hoped she'd get an answer.

"Nicole?"

"Hey, can you open your window? I'm kind of outside and I need help."

"What?" the phone line went dead and almost immediately the bedroom window slid up and Nicole was greeted with a very confused and very cute Shae.  Her curly hair was pulled up into a bun and she was wearing thick framed black glasses. An over sized T-shirt went almost all the way down to her knees she probably had shorts underneath…or maybe just underwear.

"Hey, boss. I kinda-agh!" the redhead grunted in pain and held her hand over her wound.

"Nicole, what the hell happened? I'm gonna call an ambulance."

"No, please don't.  Please." she begged.

The darker girl contemplated for a moment and then relented and helped to pull Nicole into her room and laid her down on the bed.  She was covered in sweat and her breathing was shallow.

"What am I supposed to do here, Haught?"

"You said you wanted to be a doctor...so be one.  I'll owe you."

"I'm not actually a doctor, I just know anatomy and physiology."

"That's perfect, then you know how not to kill me."

Shae rolled her eyes and left her room momentarily and returned with a hand full of supplies.  A couple of wet rags, some disinfectant, some ointment and gauze. 

"I have to take your shirt off to clean you up, ok?"

"Yeah that's fine."

Shae gave the redhead a bottle of water to drink and proceeded to cut the tank top off of Nicole and used the warm rags to clean up the redhead's abdomen.  She also decided to rid her of her pants to avoid staining her sheets and mattress with blood and replaced them with a pair of running shorts that she never wore.  Nicole was happy no questions were being asked because she didn't quite know how to provide answers as to why she showed up to her house at 3 in the morning with a stab wound.  The darker girl bandaged up the wound after putting all the ointment she had on it. 

"All done." she said placing her hand on Nicole's abdomen.  That was when she noticed it....Nicole had abs.  Very defined very taught abdominal muscles.  Shae let her eyes glance quickly over the rest of the girl's body and noticed there was muscle everywhere. “wow”

"Thanks for this.  Do you have a shirt I can borrow? I'll head home now." Nicole said attempting to sit up.

"Absolutely not." Shae gently pressed her back down into the bed by the shoulder. "You got cut pretty bad.  You can stay here as long as you need.  Even if I don't understand why you won't go to the hospital."

"No health insurance." Nicole said tiredly

"Mhm." Shae used one of the remaining clean cloths to wipe the residual sweat from Nicole's face.  She sat down on the bed next to her and smiled. "What am I going to do with you, Haught?"

"I could think of a few things." she giggled in response.  Nicole grabbed the hand that was holding the towel on her face. "I'm really glad I met you.  I don't know if you consider us friends or not, but I'd like to think we've surpassed boss and employee."

"We've definitely surpassed that. I’m actually honored you came to me for help." 

Shae caressed Nicole's temple with her thumb and her eyes dropped to the younger girl's lips.  It wasn't in her plan to date or even catch feelings for anyone until she was done with her undergraduate degree but Nicole...she was hard to resist.  Intelligent, dorky, beautiful, funny, and as she recently discovered has a knock out body.  Not that it wasn't appealing while she was in clothes but seeing her like this was a bit much.  Somewhere between the time she got lost in her thoughts and right now she leaned in close enough for their noses to brush.  Nicole's heart was racing, she didn't know what to do or how she felt and she was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she was half naked.

"Um. Yeah, friends." She said abruptly.  And that caused Shae to pull away immediately.  She covered Nicole with a blanket and grabbed additional bedding from her closet and laid it on the floor.

"Here's a shirt and some sweats you can borrow, for whenever you’re ready to leave.  Goodnight, Haught."

Shae turned off the lights in the room and laid on the pallet she made on the floor and closed her eyes, her back to her sudden houseguest. 

The redhead sighed out loud and closed her eyes, trying to forget how horribly she just handled that situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to give you all another chapter since I was gone for so long.
> 
> What do you think Nicole is going to do?! What's going to happen with Waverly?! And with Doc?! We haven't seen Rosita in a while *cough cough* what's going on with her?! Underground fight clubs? Stabbings? Quite a mess


	8. Firsts

"Wait so what happened?" Waverly asked as she absently stirred her fork around in her lunch.

"Shae almost kissed me..."

"Yeah, I got that part but what I don't get is how you ended up in her room half naked in the first place.Normally the kissing comes before the nudity."

"That's a long and complicated story. The point is I don't know what to do.What should I tell her?"

"I don't know Nicole..."

"Come on Waves, please?I don't know who else to talk to about this. Doc's idea of advice is 'she's hot, just bang her' and Rosita said 'Ditto'.I need the perspective of someone more....gentle." the redhead finished

"Alright alright...but should we talk about this here?" the brunette gestured to the cafetiria.

"It's fine, she leaves early to go to the lab.I have to see her later today though, so I need to figure out what to do now."

"Well do you like her? and do you um...want to have...you know, relations?"

"Relations?" Nicole giggled

"You know what I mean!" Waverly squeaked.

"You can just say 'sex', Waves.It's not a bad word."

"Don't hold it against her, virgins are always awkward about sex." Jeremy said from behind his book.Nicole had actually forgotten he was there, as usual.He was always buried in tech books or doodling designs for crazy looking weapons.

"Thank you, peanut gallery." the brunette rolled her eyes. "And there's nothing wrong with being a virgin...I've had chances, but I just want it to be with the right person.Sue me."

"I think that's really sweet." Nicole smiled. "And I feel the same way.When I do it I want it to be special and hopefully with someone I love."

The two girls stared at each other half smiling in an awkward silence, there was a new kind of tension rising but it wasn't anything to think too much about.Nicole could feel a rapid pulsing in her palms and internally frowned because her rate was normal.And she realized both of her palms were flat on the lunch table and Waverly had her own wrist propped up on it...she could feel her pulse. 

At this point it seemed like there would be no end to the abilities she was picking up but right now she couldn't be too excited about it. First because Waverly's heart was beating insanely fast, and second her body temperature was on the rise.

"Waves...are you ok?"

"What? yeah, why? why would you ask that?" she responded nervously

"Just um." Nicole had to think of a way to say 'my arm hair can sense irregularities in body temperature and movement' without actually saying it."Well you're breathing kinda hard and you look a little clamy." She followed up by placeing her palm over her friend's forehead to check for the fever that she already knew was there before placing her palm back in her own lap."You're a little warm."

"I'm fine, Nicole." the brunette said simply and continued. "So um, anyway.Shae."

"Oh right." Nicole breathed. "I don't know what to do.Or what to say."

"Just tell her how you feel?" Waverly asked. "Honesty is always the best policy."

"I just don't know what I feel...and even if I did, talking to pretty girls has never been a strong suit of mine."

"Should I be insulted?" Waverly laughed.

"What? You're my oldest friend."

" Hmmm.Deflecting the question I see." the brunette tapped her chin playfully. 

"Waverly Earp you know I've always thought you were the most beautiful girl in the world.The only reason I can talk to you is because I've had years of practice.Had we just met, i'd be a babbling mess."

"See? You're a natural smooth talker."

"Only for you." The redhead winked

"You two are disgusting." Jeremy groaned without looking up from his notebook.

"Nobody asked you." Waverly stuck her tongue out.

"But you're choosing to have this conversation in front of me, so I get to say what I want." he retorted playfully."And in my opinion, even though not asked for you'll get anyway, Nicole I think you like Shae.If you didn't this conversation wouldn't have lasted almost our entire lunch hour."

"Wha- Ok?" the redhead frowned. "I guess I never thought about that.But I still don't know what to say."Nicole dropped her head on the cafeteria table and sighed.

"Well what do you normally say to the girls you like?" Waverly asked.

"I don't say anything!" she drawled as she sat upright again. "I've never...pursued a girl. So I don't even know how to go about asking Shae on date."

"Well that's ok.What normally happens when they flirt with you?"

Nicole giggled and shook her head. "Waves, no one has every flirted with me or even shown the slightest interest.I've never even kissed anyone."

"Oh...I never would have guessed. But Shae is great I don't think that would matter to her.Maybe try to talk to her after work, just tell her it's new to you and you'd like to go on a date."

"Hey kids" Rosita plopped down and kicked her stilleto boot clad feet up onto the table. "What are we talking about?" She asked as she took a bite from an apple.

"My love life, which you weren't any help with." Nicole answered as she got up."I've gotta get going."

"There's still 20 minutes left." Rosita argued.

"I know, I've just got a few things to take care of."

"Oh, what could you possibly have to do?All your friends are sitting right here.Well except for Doc.I saw him go into the janitor's closet with that dumb girl from my English class."

"If you must know, I have to pee and change out my lady accessories."

"Yikes, it's shark week for you? Carry on then." The older girl waved her off.

Nicole leant down to hug Waverly from behind. "Thanks for putting up with my boring conversation.You're the best!" she squeezed her a little tighter to emphasize her gratitude and planted a quick kiss to the brunette's cheek.And with that speedily walked off towards the bathroom.

With Nicole gone Waverly took a deep breath and was able to finally relax.She placed her hand on her cheek where Nicole's lips had just been and bit her lip to keep her composure.

"When are you gonna tell her?" Rosita asked.

"Can we please drop this?I can't believe Jeremy told you."

"Hey. Nerds gotta stick together."

"I'm a nerd too!"

"Yeah but not like me and Jeremy.We like science, you like historyand literature and language and mythology.That's a whole other kind of nerd."

"I don't know why I bother to argue with you." Waverly rolled her eyes. "And even if I did tell her it would be pointless, she's got someone now."

"Not yet...who's to say she wouldn't pick you over miss tall dark and brilliant."

"Well, she's tall dark and brilliant. I'm short, pale and the wrong type of nerd apparently. Case closed."

"Not true." Rosita argued." You've got a beautiful bronze tone, but you are pretty short."

"And she said you're beautiful so points there." Jeremy chimed in.

Waverly was grateful to have such understanding friends, they've been nothing but supportive and have tried to convince her to confess her feelings but she just couldn't.Nicole didn't even know that Waverly liked girls: that would be an interesting conversation. _'Hey Nicole, I'm bi and i've known it for a while but I was kind of ashamed of it because of my homophobic father.Oh yeah, I've been in love with you since middle school and the reason I stopped talking to you in high school was because I was trying to get over you, we should go out some time.'_   If it sounded that ridiculous in her head then it would be worse in person.

"She's not listening to us is she?" Jeremy asked as he went back to doodling.

"I hear you guys." the brunette said plainly

"So why are you pushing Red into the arms of another woman when you feel the way you do about her?"

"Because, Rosie. Because all I want is for her to be happy even if it isn't with me and I'll do what I can to make that happen."

 

* * *

 

"Hey." Nicole walked into the lab and dropped her backpack in her chair and walked up to Shae sheepishly."Do you think we could talk? Um, after work?"

"I'm always here pretty late.I don't know..."

"I'll wait for you.Or even work a bit longer, help out with whatever you need."

"You don't have to work longer, Nicole.And I'm not sure how long I'll be.If I take too long we can talk at lunch tomorrow."

"Right.Understood."Nicole didn't like the tension between them.She could tell Shae wasn't feeling exactly good about being around her at the moment.So she decided to just work and not even attempt to be playful like they usually are until after they had their talk. "I'll go ahead and finish the files from last week and you can just email a list of whatever else you need done."

"Sounds good.Thank, Nicole."

"No problem, boss."

They worked effortlessly.That was one great thing about Shae that Nicole appreciated, her professionalism was immaculate.No matter what was going on she always got her work done and knew how to compartmentalize her emotions while on the job.The day went by faster than usual, probably because Nicole had drowned herself in all of the tasks that were assigned to her.She finished everything around 8pm and decided to wait outside since just sitting and staring at Shae would be creepy.

Nicole was on the roof of Oscorp doing her homework.It was very dark out her abilities allowed her to function in the dark: she wouldn't exactly call it night vision because her eyes still saw the pitch black atmosphere around her but somehow her brain was able to see the words in her textbook a different way.It had been almost 4 hours, midnight was quickly approaching when the front door to Oscorp creeked open. 

"Goodnight, John."

That voice was unmistakeably Shae's so Nicole packed her things and quickly crawled now the side of the building.She'd finally gotten used to her sticky hands and learned how to control when they were and weren't super adhesive.

"Hey." the redhead chirped as she rounded the corner.

"Oh, shit!" the darker girl yelped. "You scared the hell out of me.Where did you come from?"

"Sorry about that." she frowned. "Can I walk you home?"

"Sure."

They both walked at a slow and steady pace in awkward silence for the first few minutes before Shae spoke up.

"You're awfully quiet for someone that wanted to talk..."

"I know. I'm sorry.I just don't know how to do this."

"Hey, if you're worried about my feelings it's ok. I've obviously been reading things wrong and shouldn't have tried to make a move on you the other night."

Nicole scrunched her face and stepped in front of Shae, stopping them both from moving any further. "Ok." she breathed. "Ok um." she looked around for some unknown reason and back to the girl in front of her.And Nicole REALLY looked at her because they'd never been this close and she couldn't describe what she felt in that moment no matter how hard she tried.  Shae was just intense, her eyes were large and dark, her bone structure was amazing, her lips plump, and her skin looked soft.  It was just a bonus to the intelligence and drive that she had and Nicole really wanted to say something, _anything_ really.  But all that could come to mind was"You're really pretty." Nicole's eyes shot open realizing what she'd just blurted out. "Ugh, god. I really don't know how to do this."

"Don't know how to do what? I'm confused here."

"This!" the redhead gestured between the two of them. "What i'm trying to say is that I do like you.I really like you a lot and the other day I freaked out because, like I just embarrassingly blurted out you're really pretty but also you're more than just that, you're really smart and not just with the science you're street smart too and witty and wise and you make me laugh and I love being around you oh my god i've never even admitted all of that to myself and i'm just pouring it all out to you. Ok ok start over.I'm sorry I ran away the other night after dropping in on you like that, I just didn't know what to do.You're very intimidating and believe me I want to kiss you, boy do I want to kiss you. I've never even kissed anyone so what if I had been a bad kisser and you wouldn't like me anymore? You know?" Nicole huffed a few times before biting her bottom lip.

"Are you done?" Shae asked.A smile crept over her face.

"Mhm." the redhead nodded.

"Good."The darker girl took a couple of steps forward but didn't touch Nicole just yet. "You're very very cute when you nervous ramble."

"You're just cute all the time, I think that's the cause of my nervous ramblings." the redhead giggled.

Shae looked down at Nicole's lips and leaned in slowly, giving the younger girl a chance to back away if she wanted or meet her in the middle.Nicole looked even more nervous now but leaned in anyway and rested their foreheads together.Shae cupped her hands on both sides of Nicole's face and touched their lips lightly, pecking her and then pulling away slightly.

"I liked that." the redhead whispered. "Can we do it again?"

Shae grinned and pecked her lips again, harder and a bit longer this time before just brushing their noses together.Nicole, now feeling more sure of herself, grabbed just above Shae's hips and pulled her in closer before going in for a kiss of her own.  Nicole pecked her lips evenly and then focused on the darker girl's bottom one, she didn't know why but she had the urge to trap it between her own lips and suckle on it so she did just that very timidly.What she wasn't expecting was the light groan to bubble out of her partner's throat and the hands that were so gently placed on her cheeks were now lightly scratching her scalp.Nicole loved it and wanted more, so she instinctively tilted her head and folded their lips together over and over again.She felt something warm and velvety tickling the entrance to her mouth and it caused the redhead to giggle. "That tickles" she said briefly before kissing Shae again.  "But I like it".Some time between timidly kissing and hardcore making out they'd ended up pressed against a wall.Nicole was well aware of the cold brick sinking into her back and even more so aware of the warm girl pressed against her front.

"Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away." the darker girl took a half step backwards, well she tried to but Nicole just pulled her back in.

"No, don't be sorry.I really liked it."

"Yeah?"

"I mean I have no frame of reference but as far as first kisses go I think that was pretty amazing."

"I think it was pretty amazing too."

"So this might be a little out of order.But would you want to go on a date maybe? With me, that is." Nicole dropped her gaze

Shae thought it was adorable how nervous she got so she placed her finger under Nicole's chin and guided her face back up so she could kiss her again. "I would love to." she smiled. "I think I should really get home now though and so should you. It's pretty late."

"Yes.I don't want to keep you." Nicole smiled and grabbed Shae's hand, lacing their fingers together before she lost her nerve.The older girl smirked at their joined hands and started walking.

"I'll drop you at your place first since you're on the way."

"Wait, how do you know where I live?"

"I have my ways" the older girl smiled.

"Ok, I'll let that one slide.But no, I said I would walk you home and that's what I intend to do."

"Nicole you don't have to, that's out of your way."

"I want to.I also might want to kiss you a little more and see with my own eyes that you get inside safely."

"Such a gentle lady."

Nicole squeezed Shae's hand a little tighter as they walked the dark New York streets.Neither of them should have been out at that hour since they had to walk through a sketchy area but the redhead wasn't too concerned because she knew if necessary she could protect both of them or get them both away.They walked, it seemed, even slower than they started.Giggling about anything and stealing small kisses, playfully bumping their hips, and even making a couple of longer pitstops against the side of some buildings and on the bench of a bus stop or two.It was hard for them to say goodbye, but they planned to meet up some time the next day before and after work so it wouldn't be too long of a wait.

After bidding farewell Nicole had to steel herself because she had to go back to her fight club.  'Flex' (her alter ego) bailed on his fight the other night (For a perfectly noble reason) and was sure to catch hell from Doc for it.


	9. Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so long (4600 words) and I'm so tired I could only proof read some of it so i'm sorry lol. And how the hell is it chapter 9 already?! Wayhaught is taking their sweet time. But I wanted to just post it since it's been two months and WE season 3 has already started.

"What do you mean I can't go in? You know me, I’ve been coming here practically every day."

"Sorry, Flex.  Boss man says you can't."

"Ok look.  You either let me in or I knock you out and force my way in."

Both of the large bouncers laughed deep in their gut and gave each other a knowing look.

"You could try, kid. But you're kinda skinny and we're not...plus there's two of us."

"Funny...that's the same thing I was told last week before I beat the twins."

The twins were a particularly large pair of fighters that were almost impossible to beat.  It had been done before by a single fighter bigger than the two and by other pairs of fighters, but Nicole was the first single female fighter to do it.  Granted no one seemed to know she biologically was female, it didn't bother her in the slightest actually.  It was the first time she truly felt gender fluid.  Most people just used She/Her pronouns and that was perfectly fine too but, on those days, when she felt and dressed more masculine it would be nice to be called 'He/Him'.

"That was you?...well that's the job, kid.  I gotta go down fighting."

Both men put their fists up, and behind her cheap skii mask Nicole rolled her eyes and using her quick reflexes tapped the one closest to her on the chin and then came up behind the second and used a knife hand to strike him in the center of his back.  Both men hit the ground, completely passed out.

The redhead walked into the club and glanced around the room for Doc.  He had a wad of cash in one hand and was whooping and hollering for someone.  Nicole was surprised to see a pony tail swinging to and fro as a woman, a well figured one dressed in a leather body suit, was fighting in the ring.  She was quick and light on her feet, seductive, and clever minded.  The latter wasn't anything you could tell by just looking at someone but Nicole just had a feeling that she was.

The fight was over soon enough, the small man in the ring gave up because he was tired of being scratched by the woman's fingernails.  Nicole walked over to Doc and just stood there next to him for a moment preparing what she was going to say.

"You're out.  She's in." He said suddenly.

"What?!" the redhead exclaimed. "I have good reason for not being here just let me explain!"

"Personal business has no place in the ring.  You either show up or you don't"

"This my next opponent?"  The woman in leather approached.  She had a mask covering the top part of her face, her nose and lips were still exposed.

"No, this is Flex.  The guy you replaced."

"Guy?" She snorted. "This is clearly a woman.  Aren't you, sweetheart?" the shorter woman smirked and walked into Nicole’s personal space.  Her scent was bold and... familiar. 

"Flex? No, Flex is a boy."

"Trust me, boss.  I am very familiar with the female form."

Doc rubbed the scruff on his chin contemplating before asking "Well is this true?"

"Biologically, yes.  But it doesn't matter to me what you call me." Nicole responded

The woman hummed before adding "You sound just like one of my....no way."  She grabbed Nicole by the wrist and drug her outside the club to where both bouncers were still out cold, to which no one cared to comment on.

"Hey! what's your deal?"

"I knew something about you was familiar.  Freakishly tall female, that ghastly deodorant, and you're gender fluid.  Red, is that you?"

The nickname caught Nicole by surprise but suddenly she put two and two together.  The scent she'd picked up on was one she smelled every day in Biology.

"Rosie?!"

"Holy shit!" Rosita pulled her mask off and Nicole followed suit.

"What the hell are you doing here? How?" The redhead inquired

"Well I've got the skill and my family ran into some financial issues, so I followed Doc here.  I knew he was into some shady shit, just was a matter of time before I figured it out."

"Me too.  The money is really good, we've been able to eat full meals more than 3 times a week."

"Fuck.  Doc said I replaced you, what happened?"

"I was on my way here when I heard screaming coming from an alley.  It just so happened to be Waverly, she was attacked by these guys and I went to save her, but I got cut pretty bad.  We both got away fine but there was no way I’d be able to fight like that."

"So it was you who saved her, why didn't you say anything? She thinks it's this big mystery."

"Because I don't want her to know anything about my underground life." Nicole sighed. "This is only temporary, and if she knew..."

"Little miss goodie goodie would be disappointed in you."

"Hey, don't call her that.  There's nothing wrong with being a good person."

"I'm just teasing, red." Rosita smiled. "So, what are we gonna do about doc? I could split the gigs with you?"

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll pass.  Doc knows I'm a girl now thanks to a certain someone, so it's only a matter of time before he recognizes that it's me."

"Sorry, I didn't know who you were at first! And honestly, how does the dude not know when his best friend is standing right next to him?"

"Hey, don't worry about it.  Just be safe in there.  And I don't know, we spoke enough while I was Flex. it's amazing he didn't put it together."

"Flex" Rosita repeated. "That's a horrible name."

"Oh yeah? Well what's yours?"

"The Black Cat." she enunciated.  "Harrowing isn't it?"

"Ok it's pretty cool." Nicole groaned. They stood in silence for about 10 seconds before Nicole snapped her eyes up. "Hey, Rosita what's wrong with my deodorant?!"

"I have another fight." Rosita put her mask back on and headed back towards the door. "See you later, red."

"Hey!" Nicole called out.  But it was too late, the door had closed, and she wasn't about to go where she wasn't wanted. 

So Nicole turned on her heal and began walking home and contemplated what she was going to do for money.  Sure, she could get a job but it wasn't going to be enough.  But then again, every little thing could help.  On her way home she’d managed to change out of her ‘battle gear’ and back into regular clothing.  Rattling off a list in her head, she thought doing lots of odd jobs would be more lucrative.

\- Baby Sitter

\- Photographer for weddings and parties

\- Pizza delivery person

\- Clean houses

\- Wash Cars

\- Mow lawns

\- Walk dogs

It wasn't much but it would have to do for now.  With plans to start all of her little hustles tomorrow, Nicole turned onto her street and sighed when she saw her house come into view.  It'd been a long night and sleep was desperately needed.  Something felt kind of off to her though, the closer she got.  The hair on her forearms and the back of her neck stood on end.  That definitely meant that something was wrong, so she took off in a run towards her house and that was when she heard the yelling.  A man's voice giving threats and someone else hyperventilating.   When Nicole reached her home all of the lights were off and it was dead silent, it wasn't even a half second later she knew where it was coming from and didn't miss a step continuing to Waverly's house.  Her dad had probably had too much to drink again.

There was glass breaking and shouting, fumbling, and cries of 'daddy please' flooding into Nicole's ears and without thinking she broke through the front door.  The place was a mess, not that it wasn't always, but it was worse now. The couch cushions strewn about, the end table that normally stood next to it was tipped over and the lamp that rested on that was smashed into a hundred pieces.  The two occupants of the home were nowhere in sight, so they must have been upstairs.

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?! YOU LEFT ME TO RAISE OUR DAUGHTERS ALONE!"

"Daddy please.  I'm not mom.  It's me, Waverly.  I'm sure she'll be back soon."

Nicole was half way up the stairs when Waverly cried out in pain.  From the sound of it, they were in her room.  After more yelling she finally reached them.  The bedroom door was already wide open, Ward had grabbed Waverly by the wrist and was gripping so tight his knuckles turned white.  They were wedged into a corner with Waverly's back against the wall.  Waverly’s physical state was less than healthy.  Her lip was split and she had a bruise on her shoulder as well as on her thighs.  The shorts and tank top she wore clearly showed all of the various cuts and bruises her father had gifted her as of late.

"Hey!  Let her go!" Nicole yelled

Waverly looked past her father to see Nicole and her familiar head of read hair: first relief washed over her face, and then worry.  "Nicole, you have to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving without you."

"Who the hell are you? GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"  the older man screamed

"I will gladly leave as long as she comes with me."

"This is a family matter and YOU WILL SEE YOUR WAY OUT!" he seethed. "NOW!"

"Nic, it's ok. Believe me, I’m fine I know how to handle this. I don't want you to get hurt."

The redhead took a couple of slow steps forward and placed her hand on the wall next to her for leverage, just in case he wanted to try something, so she'd be ready.  But her hand started pulsing...throbbing actually, and it was erratic.  The feeling of it was so unique that she knew it was Waverly's heartbeat, it was the same feeling she got when they were sitting at lunch together and she felt it the first time.  But this…it was like she could feel the fear in it.

"I already told you, I’m not leaving without you.  Trust me when I tell you I'll make sure you're safe ok?"

The brunette let a tear escape from her eye and nodded her head. "Ok, I trust you."

Nicole continued her slow pace and placed one hand out in front of her in surrender.

"Mr. Earp, can you let Waverly go please?"

"This is my wife. I do what I want with her. Now get out! Get out of my house before I kill you!"

"Nicole..."

"It's fine, Waves." the redhead assured. "Mr. Earp, I'm gonna come over there to take your wife somewhere safe for a while, ok?"

"Don’t come any closer!" He yanked Waverly closer to himself and started walking along the wall away from Nicole.  She didn't know what he was planning because the only thing he was getting closer to was the dresser, when her eyes flicked towards it she notices the shiny stainless steel kitchen knife resting on it.

"Shit" Nicole said under her breath.  There wasn't time to wait so she bolted towards the two Earps as Ward was reaching his hand out to grab the knife.  The redhead grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back a couple of steps.

"You don't want to do this.  Just let your daughter go and there won’t be any trouble."

He was too far gone to listen, so he balled up his fist and wound his arm backwards.  Nicole was ready for it, she'd been through it so many times it wouldn't be an issue to just wait, dodge and get him on the ground.  But before she could do anything Waverly was jumping on his back. 

"No, don't!" she yelled.

"Get off me, you little bitch!" Ward retorted.  He struggled to shake her off and when her feet hit the ground he stuttered backwards and smashed her into the wall.  It wasn't intentional on his part, but the outcome made a satisfied look grow over his face.  The small girl crumpled to the ground with a sigh and Ward was able to pick up the knife he'd originally tried to reach.  Nicole was completely over the situation, so she stepped forward, ignoring whatever snide remark the drunk old man had to say, and knocked him on the chin once with her elbow and a second time on the back after he'd been spun from the first blow and he was out cold.

Nicole let out a breath and kicked the knife that had fallen to the floor far away from the unconscious man before running over to where Waverly was sitting.  Her eyes were bulged open in fear and she held the arm her father had been gripping.  It already looked pretty bad, blue and purple and swollen.

"Hey." Nicole leaned down and caressed her friend's face. "Wave, it's ok now.  He's asleep."

She didn't move or speak, and from the look of it she was barely breathing.

"Um, uh....ok. I'm going to give you a little space and then come back.  I'm not leaving, just going to take care of a few things ok?" There was no answer once more, so Nicole just nodded her head and stood up.  If memory served her correctly, and it did, there was a small fan in the closet.  Nicole plugged it in and set it on low facing Waverly and then opened the two windows to let a breeze in, she remembered that whenever the brunette had a panic attack or was afraid she always needed to feel a breeze.

After making sure she was ok, Nicole grabbed Ward by the ankles and drug him to his room.  She picked him up and laid him on his side in his bed so if he suddenly needed to vomit while passed out he wouldn't choke.  Next, the redhead went downstairs to the kitchen to get a glass of water and a snack before returning to Waverly's room.

She still hadn't moved but seemed at least alert.

"Hey.  Are you with me again?" Nicole asked as she sat next to her.

"You left me." she responded quietly.

"I've been here in the house the whole time.  Your dad is in his room sleeping it off, I put a glass of water and some pain killers on his night stand.  I also got you a glass of water and something to put in your stomach." she offered the items to her then

"Oh.  uh, thanks."  Waverly sipped the water slowly before setting the cup down next to her and twirled the chocolate bar in her hand. "This is the same candy my mom would give me after I woke up from nightmares."

"I remember.  There's a whole box in your cupboard."  The two sat in silence for a moment before Nicole continued.

"I would never leave you.  I just wanted to make sure you had nothing to worry about."

The brunette snorted "Of course..."

Nicole furrowed her brow.  She could sense some kind of anger or something not positive in the tone. "Did I...do something wrong?"

"No. No. Uhhh no." she shook her head "Not at all. I'm just a little rattled."

"Right, of course.  I get it." the redhead smiled. "So, I wanna ask you something and the timing probably isn’t the best, but you don't have to answer me right now"

"Oh. alright. What is it?"

"Ok. Um, Waves." Nicole turned to fully face the brunette and grabbed both of her hands. "We've been friends for a really long time now. And I think you know as well as I do that recently our friendship has flourished into something more.  I feel like we should maybe make things...you know, official.  I think it would work since we've known each other so long you know?  And of course, sometimes people who take that step up from just best friends fall out and lose the friendship all together but we're better than that.  Right? I think it's worth the risk."

"Oh." Waverly gulped and smiled. "You think I’m worth..."

"Of course, you are.  And your safety comes first."

"My...safety?"

"Yeah.  Don't you think moving in with me would be better than living in fear over here?" Nicole asked. "Hey! that rhymed!"

"Right. From...best friends to roomates."  Waverly took her hands out of her friend’s and put them in her own lap then.

"Like I said.  You don't have to answer now. But just know the option is there.  I already talked to my aunt and uncle and they think it's a great idea."

"That's an awful lot to ask of you, Nicole." the brunette sighed. "I can't burden you all more than I already have."

"You are not a burden and we aren't asking.  We all want you with us.  My aunt and uncle love you...and I love you."

Waverly smiled again but this time it didn't reach her eyes.  "I love you, too.  More than you probably realize."

"Sooooo is that a yes?" the redhead asked hopefully.

"Ahh" Waverly shook her head. "Why not? Yeah, yes. I will move in with you.  But under one condition."

"Of course, anything."

"They have to let me pay rent.  I can probably only work part time with school and everything, but I want to contribute something."

"Ha!" Nicole laughed. "Good luck convincing them to take your money.  They won't even take mine."

"I'm sure I can figure something out."

"Well, while you're thinking on that lets pack you up, yeah?"

"Sounds good.  Um, my suitcases are under my bed.  I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick, everything is where it always is." 

The brunette bolted out of the room pretty quickly and shut the bathroom door behind her.  Nicole frowned and stood still to listen.   The closed door muffled a lot of the sound, but Nicole could hear deep breathing and then the sink came on which drowned out even more sound.  Waverly started talking to herself but the most she could make out was 'stupid' 'can't believe you thought' and 'doesn't love you.'  Nicole realized this whole thing with her dad was harder on the girl than she thought even though it'd been happening for years.

So, she began packing her friend's belongings, starting with the clothes.  Waverly was very organized, so it wasn't hard to do.  All of her shirts were hung up since she mostly wore blouses and the few t-shirts she had were folded perfectly and so were all of her pants.  It was simply a matter of transferring the items into the suitcases.  Nicole was surprised to see how scandalous Waverly's underwear was.  She had a lot of lacy thongs and bras, even her workout bras were sexy.  "Only Waverly could pull all of this off." She thought out loud.

"I'm sure you could too."

Nicole jumped and squeaked. "You scared the crap out of me." she said with her hand over her chest.  And it was odd because ever since she got her powers she knew when an ant was coming down the block but somehow, she couldn't tell when a fully grown person was coming from the next room.  Or maybe it was just a Waverly thing, her powers were always different around the brunette.

"Sorry.  It's kind of a habit to walk quietly around here."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." Nicole turned to the bags on the bed. "I got all your clothes. I don't know what else you want out of here."

"Not much. I never really kept anything nice because daddy likes to break things."

"Oh..."

"You can sit. I'm just gonna get the rest of what I need."

"Sure."  Nicole sat on the bed and watched as Waverly grabbed a duffle bag and large backpack out of her closet.  She grabbed some framed photos and a photo album. Some of her movies, a lot of books, her laptop, a small box and a few other miscellaneous items.

"Ok, this is it.  I'll have to make 4 or 5 trips."

"Or, you could not be silly and let me help you and it would only take two trips."

"Are you sure?  It's pretty late, and I don't wanna keep you."

Nicole just grabbed a few of the bags and nodded her head towards the door.  They sat everything in the living room of Nicole's house and headed back next door.  All that was left was one backpack which Waverly could have gotten herself, but Nicole was a gentleman and wouldn't let a lady who just went through something horrible go to the source of her trauma alone.

"Hey." Waverly said as she walked through the door. "I never said thank you.  For saving me.  You just charged in with no regard for yourself."

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

"You know, whoever ends up with you is really lucky."

"Really? Do I detect some jealousy?" Nicole asked playfully.

"Of course.  Every girl wants to be treated like a queen.  And if this is how you treat your friends I can't imagine how you'd be with a girlfriend."

"Well I'm flattered." the taller girl smiled. "And for the record, I envy whichever boy ends up with Waverly Earp."

"Who says it'll be a boy?"

Nicole stopped in her tracks as Waverly continued walking and started going up the stairs.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"What if I make dinner tomorrow? As a thank you to Ned and Sally."

Nicole chased her friend up the stairs still dumbfounded. "Hey, don't change the subject!"

"I'm not" the brunette said as she reached the top of the steps.

"Waves, did you just come out to me? Or was that a joke?"

She opened her mouth to answer but a grumble and some shuffling sounds started coming from the master bedroom.

"Shit, he's up." Waverly said.  She instinctively stood behind Nicole and grabbed her friend's arms. "He's normally out for 12 hours after a bender like that."

"Ok.  It's ok.  He's still in his room."

"What if he comes out here?!"

Nicole turned around and placed her hands on Waverly's shoulders. "Look at me." She paused until the shorter girl followed the directions. "I need you to breathe deeply.  Just focus on that."

"O-o-ok." she shivered.

"Good.  Now we're going to go to your room and get your bag and leave."

Waverly nodded her head and they walked at a quick pace towards her room.  Nicole picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Got it.  Let’s get out of here."

She expected the brunette to be right behind her but when she didn't hear her adorable little footsteps she stopped and turned around.  Waverly was sitting in the middle of her bed with her knees folded into her chest, shaking.

"Oh, no." she said letting the bag fall to the floor. "Everything is ok now.  You are safe."

"He-he's always been mean. B-but he never came at me with a knife before." She sobbed. "I think my mom finally left him for good...and she left me behind too."

"I'm so sorry, Waves."

"This is where I used to sit when they fought. And when it was over she brought me that stupid chocolate bar. And now...everyone that loved me is gone because of him.  My sisters, my aunt, and now mom."

"I... don’t know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything." the brunette sniffed. "I mean I know what you must have thought of her.  My mom was never perfect. But at the end of the day even after she went on her own benders she came in my room and showed me some kind of way that she cared."

"The chocolate." Nicole said more than asked.

"Or a kiss on the head.  I liked those more than anything.  Forehead kisses make me feel safe, I can't explain why.  They just do."

Nicole sat on the bed next to Waverly but not too close in case she didn't want to be touched but the smaller girl immediately laid her head on her shoulder.  Nicole wrapped her arm around Waverly's shoulder and let her cry.

"I know this really sucks and it probably won't make it any better.  But I'll always be here...I mean as long as you don't phase me out again."

Waverly cried even harder at the failed joke and Nicole cringed at herself.  "Ok too soon for that one. Sorry.  If you want to stay here a bit longer why don't lay down? Try to rest."

"Will you stay?"

"You don't even have to ask."

The two girls laid back in the bed and Waverly cradled a pillow to her chest and sighed deeply.  Tears ran steadily from her face into the pillow she was laying on but neither of them said anything.  There was nothing to be said.  So they laid there for a while and not too long after Waverly drifted off to sleep.  The emotional rollercoaster of the day probably exhausted her.  Nicole waited a respectable amount of time before getting up and checking on the old man.  She despised him, but still this was her best friend’s father and she couldn’t in good conscience let anything happen to him.  Nicole peaked into his room and saw the glass of water and pain killers she left on the nightstand were gone and she also saw a couple of his dresser drawers on the floor as well as some clothes strewn about.  The fumbling they heard earlier was probably him trying to change into something comfortable.  Though now she couldn't tell since he was laying face down under the blankets.  Still very much breathing of course.

 

Nicole went back to Waverly's room and picked up her backpack as well as the chocolate bar she hadn't eaten earlier that night.  Waverly was still fast asleep, so the taller girl walked over and slipped one arm under the brunette's knees and another just under her upper back and lifted her with ease.  Waverly automatically curled herself into Nicole's front and clutched tightly to her shirt, as they made their way to the Nedley household.  Nicole took her friend to her own room because she felt like after the day she'd had, a bed would be nicer than a couch.  So she leaned over to lay Waverly down gently and when she tried to get up she realized that her shirt was still being clutched.

"no." she moaned softly. "stay here"

Nicole looked wanted to get ice to put on Waverly's quickly bruising wrist, but it looked like she was stuck for the night.  It was nearly 4 in the morning and they still had to go to school the next day.

"Ok, I'll stay." Nicole whispered.  She got into bed and laid on her back before reaching over to turn off the lamp on her night stand.  Both of them were fully dressed with their shoes on, but Nicole was able to kick her own off and peel Waverly’s off with her toes because she was only wearing slip on flat.

The smaller girl shifted then and put her head on Nicole's shoulder, she was so close that her nose was pressed into the redhead's neck and her hand had glided well across her midsection to grab at her ribs.  Nicole instinctively held tighter and stayed awake through the rest of the night, she just couldn't risk sleeping at a time like this. Sure she had to be attentive for classes tomorrow but this...this was more important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone asked me to do a Wynonna Earp in the Ghost Rider Universe prompt so I'm gonna try? I welcome all prompts cause i'll actually do them quickly since it's easier than developing a multichaptered story. Come to my tumblr chanandlerbong-world and drop your prompts and complaints there. If you still have faith for this story thank you for reading and bearing with me as I take forever to post each chapter haha. Also I need a Beta


	10. Safety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind Nicole is 15 and Waverly is 14 so their behavior is supposed to be juvenile.

Nicole didn't sleep at all.  She couldn't.  There was a very tiny and very bruised and very scared girl in her bed, clinging to the front of her shirt for dear life.  Waverly had balled the front of it into a fist a little over 4 hours ago and hadn't released even the slightest bit since then.  The redhead's phone vibrated in her pocket and she cursed quietly to herself when she read the text.  It was from Shae, they were supposed to meet up in an hour and she was confirming the place.  Nicole contemplated what to do next, Waverly didn't need to be awake for another half an hour and waking her wouldn't be necessary.  It was large and stretchy enough, so Nicole slipped down the bed and out of the shirt successfully not waking the sleeping girl in her bed.  Admittedly, her mutant spider powers made that possible because in her regular form that wouldn't have been graceful at all.  She texted Shae to say she would meet her at her house and they could walk to school together.

 'Ok.' Nicole whispered. 'Gotta get ready.'  And she did, relatively quickly.  Showers took little time since she didn't need to wait for the water to get hot, all of it felt pretty much the same to her.  Hot and cold water was room temperature to her new and improved skin.  Getting dressed was quicker too since she could hold her pants up by the waist and literally jump into them.  Once dressed, Nicole went downstairs to where her aunt and uncle were sitting and having their morning coffee.

"Good morning.  Someone came in awful late." Sally said from behind her newspaper.

"Oh, right.  I was at Oscorp pretty late and then I came home, and stuff was happening next door..."

"Is everything alright?" Ned piped up.  He was so concerned he put his croissant down.  (something he never does.)

"Yeah yeah.  Waverly is up in my room. I asked her to move in here this time and she agreed.  Hope that's still alright."

"Of course it is." Sally responded. Nicole began maneuvering around the kitchen to whip up something to eat as her aunt continued. "It must have been really bad for her to agree so quickly."

"Her mom left...and Ward had a knife, she was pretty banged up when I got there."

"That man." Ned shook his head. "No, that's not a man.  That's a coward.  He doesn't deserve to have children."

"I know." Nicole responded.

"How could he be so...I mean there are so many people in this world that want nothing but to love a child of their own and can't but people like him can just accidently make a family."

It was always a sore spot for Ned. He and Sally always wanted children and they tried for a long time, but they just weren't able to.  Adoption was on their list of options, but they could never get approval for one dumb reason or another.  Nicole always felt bad, so she came up behind her uncle and hugged him tightly.

"You know I was really young when my parents went missing.  I remember being lost and not knowing what I would do or how I would grow up without them, but I was lucky enough to have you.  I know you didn't exactly get to be a dad, but I think we have a nice little family."

"We do." He nodded. "You know I never wanted to cross any boundaries. But I think of you as my own."

"And I've always thought of the both of you as parents."

Nicole kissed her uncle's cheek and continued her task in the kitchen as she was pressed for time.

"You two are so emotional." Sally commented.

"Oh hush.  You love us." Ned leaned over and kissed his wife before going back to his breakfast.

Nicole smiled at her aunt and uncle before taking the dishes in her hands and bolting up the stairs back to her room.

 

Lying in bed, still utterly exhausted, Waverly scrolled aimless through the social media on her phone.  She didn't remember how she got to Nicole's room or why she was cuddling a shirt (or why she couldn't seem to let go of it), but she was grateful that her phone had been sitting on a charger and that her preset alarm had went off so she could get up and go to school.  Nicole walked in then, already dressed, with a bowl in her hand.  She couldn't have showered too long ago because her hair was still practically dripping.

"Hey." she said casually. "I made you some oatmeal."

"Oh. thanks." Waverly responded taking the bowl out of the taller girl's hand.

"Did you sleep ok?"

"Considering everything...yeah, I did.  I don't even remember walking here."

"You didn't.  You knocked out in your room and I just carried you."

"That's embarrassing." the brunette said as she took a bite of her breakfast. "You didn't have to do that."

"Don't worry about it.  It's not like you really weigh anything."

"I'm not that small.  And if memory serves, you can barely pick up a hardcover text book."

Nicole laughed and shrugged. "Maybe that used to be true.  But not anymore"

"I see that..." Waverly trailed off.  She looked at Nicole closely in her tank top.  Her body was so different than before...Nicole was still thin, but it was a buff kind of thin.  Her biceps her cut and bulging, the tightness of her jeans showed the rippling muscle of her quads, and Waverly would be lying to herself to say she hadn't noticed the swell of the taller girl's ass over the last couple of weeks.

"Nic...have you been working out or something?"

"Sort of?....More like uhm...parkour?"

"Parkour?" the brunette asked with a tone that said she wasn't buying it. "Parkour gave you ripped arms and a plump lifted ass in a month?  And what happened with your glasses? I never see you wear contacts and you can't even tell the water pitcher from the orange juice in the refrigerator without them.  And you grew like 6 inches, what are now? 5foot7?"

Nicole's heart pounded at the onslaught of questions. Of course, there was one answer that would cover all of them but she didn't know how to say it, so she played dumb.

"I think I just hit puberty late? And I’m actually 5'9."

"Jesus, you're like a tree.  A big gay tree." The words came out before Waverly could think about it and she instantly regretted it.

"What?" Nicole frowned.

"What?"

"Did you just call me 'a big gay tree'? And did you just admit that you’ve been checking out my ass?"

"Maybe?" she responded baring her teeth. "Sorry, I don't know why.  It just kind of came out."

"Well you're not wrong.  I'm taller than average now and I am gay." Nicole shrugged. "I gotta get going, though.  I'll see you at school?"

"It's kinda early, isn't it?" Waverly asked.

"Yeah, I'm meeting Shae.  I told her I'd walk her to school."

"So, I take it everything went well with her yesterday?"

"Definitely." Nicole grinned sinking her teeth into her bottom lip.

"Wow.  that’s um.  That's amazing.  Go go!" she waved her on. "Go see your girl."

Nicole nodded and turned away to walk towards the door when she heard Waverly sigh quietly.  She had stood up and gone over to the window and was looking at her house, Nicole's shirt was still gripped tightly in her fist.

"It'll all be okay, it just takes time." the redhead said as she placed her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Yeah...I'll get over it eventually." Waverly responded. Though Nicole didn't know she wasn't just talking about the situation with her family. The brunette sighed again and dropped her gaze.

"Hey." Nicole tapped Waverly twice on the chin to get her to look up so their eyes could meet. "I've got you." she placed a quick peck on the shorter girl's forehead.

"I know." Waverly smiled. "Now please.  Go, I don't want you to be late meeting Shae."

* * *

 

They were going to be late.  Ok they were already late, and both of them only cared a little.  Kissing Shae was probably the most distracting thing Nicole had ever encountered.  She smelled amazing, kind of like a popsicle which sounded weird but was the only way to explain it. Her lips her amazing, her face was amazing, the way she looked at Nicole was amazing, her brain was amazing, and the most amazing thing was how into Nicole she was.

The redhead had quickly made her way to Shae's home a little early even and decided to knock on her bedroom window instead of the front door like a normal person.  So, the older girl didn't question it and just threw her backpack outside and climbed out of the small opening, but she lost her balance and fell into Nicole who caught her with ease.  Shae's arms were around Nicole's neck and the corners of her mouth turned up at their closeness.

"I missed you." Shae whispered.  And Nicole couldn't wait anymore so she smashed their lips together.

And there they were several minutes later, Shae pressed into the side of her house. Their faces flushed and clothing completely disheveled.  Mind clouded by lust, Nicole bit pretty hard on Shae's bottom lip causing something between a yelp and a moan to escape her throat.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry." the redhead pleaded. "I didn't mean-"

Her words were cut off by hands, one in her hair and one on her hip, flipping their positions.  Nicole was now pressed into the prickly wall, hot palms pushed her shirt up ever so slightly and pawed at the skin there, lips and teeth attached to her neck to suckle on her protruding nerves.  And for the first time ever Nicole heard herself moan, loud.  The older girl pulled away then and looked at her with lust clouded eyes.

"That was really sexy."

Nicole's eyebrows rose to her hairline. "wh. Oh. really?" she asked.  No one had ever called her sexy before and to be honest she'd never looked at herself in a mirror and thought about if anyone would see any sex appeal.

"Yes, really." Shae pecked Nicole's lips once more briefly before walking away and picking up her bag.  "Now let’s go before we're even more late."

"Seriously?  You do all of that with the touching and the-and the-and the-the lips and you know. All that, and just want to stop like that?"

Shae grinned at Nicole's adorable stammering and laced their fingers together. "Trust me, I didn't want to stop at all. I just needed to cool down.  I was a littleeee... worked up."

"Oohh." Nicole nodded in realization. "Ok, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, babe." the darker girl shrugged. "It's normal for people to get heated with their gir...um. With people they're involved with."

The slipup didn't go unnoticed by Nicole and she wasn't going to let it go either.

"You almost called me your girlfriend." the redhead smiled.

"Slip of the tongue.  I know we just started this last night and it's fast and we haven't been on a date yet, but I like you and I guess I’m hoping it'll work out? I don't know.  Forget it."

"Now who's nervous rambling?"

"Yeah well you're really cute all the time so it's hard not to." She responded, paraphrasing Nicole's words from the night before.

"So, do you want to be girlfriends?" Nicole blurted.

"You don't think it's too soon?"

"No.  I like you a lot, we know each other pretty well and I'm not interested in dating anyone else. Are you?...Interested in dating other people?"

"There's just you." the older girl said bashfully.

"Ooook. Sooo are we girlfriends?" Nicole drawled

"Yes."

\-------------------------------------------

**_ Three Months Later _ **

 

It was going well for them.  Their three-month anniversary had gone by and it was nearly summer.  Shae would be graduating and attending University in the City so the only difference in their relationship come August would be not seeing each other in the halls between periods or being able to walk to and from school together.

 

Nicole sat at the lunch table with her regular group of friends on the last day of school.  Rosita, who gradually became the queen of black and leather sat with her nose in some thick book.  Along with her kinky new style she'd randomly developed an interest in architecture, electrical wiring, and computer science.

Jeremy sat doodling in his little book and with the help of her stealthy powers Nicole was able to discover that he was trying to build advanced body arm.  For who or what was a real mystery, but it looked cool.  The only person that wore stuff like that was Iron Man, but everyone knew he was a genius that wouldn't trust anyone but himself to build such things.

Doc was perusing his phone and playing with the weird mustache that he decided to start growing.  It looked ridiculous but at the same time it kind of fit him, the look was growing on everyone.

Waverly wasn't really doing anything and was more silent than usual.  After her sisters and mother abandoned her and her father didn't come looking after she moved out a sadness washed over her.

"Hey, baby."  Nicole heard from behind her.  A familiar pair of lips were on her own and removed in the blink of an eye.

"Hey, Shae.  I thought you were going to the library to study." Nicole asked.

"I am. I just wanted to come say hi.  I haven't seen you all day."

"Well someone's been too busy for their girlfriend these past few days."

"Alright, you got me there." the older girl sighed and leaned down to be eyelevel with her girlfriend. "But I promise to make it up to you tonight.  Got the house to myself so it'll just be you and me."

Nicole pulled both of her own lips into her mouth and wordlessly agreed by nodding and giving a chipper "mhm!"

"Ok. My place after you have dinner with your aunt and uncle. At 9?" Shae kissed Nicole on the cheek and sauntered off.

The redhead let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Oh god." she panted.

"What's wrong with you, red?" Rosita asked.

"This might be TMI..." she responded

"Nobody cares, spill it."

Nicole looked around the table and no one objected so she decided to go for it.

"I think Shae wants to...take our relationship to the next level. Physically."

"I thought you guys already have with the way you're constantly eye fucking each other." Waverly said dryly.

"Jesus, Waves.  No need to be so crude." the redhead frowned

"I'm not." she defended. "It just seemed like you already did. Does anyone disagree?"

Everyone shook their head no.

"Well we haven't." Nicole clarified. "We just kiss...we haven't even gone to like second base or whatever the next base is!"

"You haven't grabbed a tit yet?" Rosita asked incredulously.  "She's so hot, how do you keep your hands to yourself?"

"Oh now now, Rosie." Doc chimed in. "Haught is being a gentleman."

"Now now, Henry.  Seems like you could use a lesson or two." the dark-haired girl smirked.

"You've never complained about it before."

"Well maybe I'm complaining now."

Nicole scrunched up her face at their odd interaction. "Why are two being weird?"

"They actually are bumping uglies." Jeremy said from behind his book.

"I'm sorry, what?!"

"Yep." Jeremy responded dryly

The redhead looked at the two and they didn't deny the accusation nor seemed bothered that she knew.

"Ok…are you guys like together or something?"

"Of course we aren't together.  I'm not the settling type and neither is Henry."

"How long have you been...you know, doing it?"

"You'd know if you were around more." Waverly said.  She picked up her lunch tray and walked away, dumping it before heading out of the cafeteria.

"What's up with her?" Nicole asked.

"I don't know. You're the one that lives with her." Rosita snapped.

"Ugh." Nicole groaned and got up to chase after the brunette. "Wave!" she yelled.

Once in the hallway away from prying eyes, Nicole could run at full speed and quickly caught up to grab a hold of her friend's arm.

"Not now!" Waverly snapped.

"Ok, whoa." Nicole raised her hands in surrender. "If I did something to you then just tell me. You don't have to yell at me."

Waverly remained silent with her jaw clenched.

"Waves...what the hell is going on with you?"

"I’m surprised you even care." she rolled her eyes.

"No, you don't get to do this.  I've done nothing but support and care about you, unless you forgot where you're currently living."

The brunette dropped her head and took a deep breath. "I...I didn't mean that."

Nicole assumed that was the closest thing to an apology she was going to get. "It's fine.  I know I've been spending more time with Shae but she's my girlfriend now.  And that doesn't mean I don't have time for you too. For all of you."

"Actually." the brunette continued. "You've been good about splitting your time.  We see you less, but you didn't go ghost on us."

"Good.  I never wanted to do that." Nicole smiled. "Now can you please tell me what's wrong? I've only ever seen you act like this when something serious is going on."

"I got a call from a strange number yesterday...It was my mom."

"Oh Waves." Nicole frowned. "What happened?"

"She told me she couldn't stand daddy anymore and that's why she left...he was bad for her mental health and she wanted to get sober, so she went to a 30-day rehab facility and now wants me to move to Canada or something with her."

"Wow.  Are you going?"

"I don't know...I've been squatting with you for a while, but I don't know if I can trust her."

"If feeling bad about staying with us is the only reason you'd go with her then I think you need to stay here."

"Are you sure?"

"Waves, my home is your home.  Stop thinking so hard about it, honestly it's getting old."

"Oh." Waverly suddenly felt self-conscious and wondered how annoying she really was.

"You're still thinking way too hard about it." Nicole continued.

"Ok ok. I'm stopping.  I promise." Waverly backed up a bit to lean against the lockers and rested her head backwards closing her eyes. " I just need some time to kind of digest everything, if that's ok?"

"Of course it is." Nicole tapped her on the chin twice and waited for the brunette to look at her. "Remember, I've got you." The redhead kissed her shorter friend on the forehead and walked back towards the cafeteria..  It became kind of a thing for them, when Waverly started to spiral Nicole would repeat the same sequence: tap on the chin, 'I've got you' followed by forehead kiss. It always worked, and Waverly felt bad that she didn't have a thing for Nicole, but that was because she didn't need one.  The brunette was always in crisis or emotional distress and she didn't know how the redhead had the patience to deal with her when she could barely deal with herself. 

 Once alone, Waverly let out a deep breath and took her phone out of her back pocket to draft a text.

 **Waverly:**   Thanks, Jelly Bean.  You're the best.

 **Nicole:**    You've been hanging around my aunt too long.

 **Waverly:**   I think it's just enough.

 **Waverly:**   And about your Shae thing.  She cares about you a lot, just talk to her.  Be honest and she'll understand.

 **Nicole:**     You don't think she'll be mad?

 **Waverly:**   If she can't wait then she doesn't deserve you.  But something tells me she's more than willing to...

 **Nicole:**    Thanks, bestie.  See you at home.

 **Nicole:**   OUR home :)

 

* * *

 

 It was 9pm sharp and Nicole had been standing on Shae's doorstep for about 10 minutes.  Normally she couldn't wait to see her, but she was really nervous about talking to the older girl about sex.  Her phone vibrated in her hand, it was a text from Shae asking if she was on her way.  Instead of answering she rang the doorbell.  It came open immediately to a smiling face that fell almost immediately.

"What's wrong, Nicky?"

Nicole didn't really know what to say so she stepped forward and embraced the older girl.  Shae was just a little taller than she was, and it felt nice to be able to fall into someone again.  Since her growth spurt Nicole felt like she had to responsible for everyone, but with her girlfriend she didn't have to be anyone she didn't want to.

"Baby, what is it?" Shae asked again.

"I just really missed you this week."

"We haven't been apart this long since we got together.  I've missed you too."

When they pulled away from each other Nicole was pulled by the wrist into the house.  It was relatively warm, probably due to the stove being on.  All the lights were off save for the yellow glow coming from the living room.

"What's all this?" Nicole asked as she ventured further into the house leaving her girlfriend behind her.

"This is me making up for my absence.  Is it too much?"

There were roses and candles everywhere and a pile of blankets and pillows in the middle of the floor in front of the fire place: chocolates and bottles of what Nicole assumed was sparkling cider on the mantel.

"If I’m being honest, it is a lot.  But I absolutely love it."

"Are you sure? I can get rid of it."

Nicole turned around to say no but was struck speechless.

"Wow. You look...wow." The redhead was surprised she hadn't noticed the outfit sooner.

"I was hoping you'd like it." Shae twirled like an adolescent in her little black dress.  It wasn't anything too special but seeing as she always wore slacks and a lab coat, it was a big step up.

"I love it.  And you should have told me, I'd have dressed up too."

"It's ok, I know you don't like to."

"True.  But for you I would have made an exception."

"You're really sweet."

"I get that a lot." Nicole hummed and placed her hands on her girlfriend's hips. 

They kissed gently and sat by the fireplace eating their chocolate with apple cider, talking and laughing.  It was very romantic, and for about 2 hours Nicole forgot her nerves. Until Shae said something that triggered her memory.

"As much as I love sitting here with you, I'd love it if you could help me out of this dress."

"Out of it? You don't want to stay in it, it looks nice?"

"Well yes it looks nice but I would feel nicer without it." Shae kissed the tip of Nicole's nose and turned so she was sitting with her back to the redhead. "Unzip me, babe." She said as she pulled her hair to the side and out of the way.

'Honesty' Nicole whispered to herself.

"Um, I'm not ready for sex." she said bluntly. "I want to wait and if you can't then maybe um maybe she shouldn't-" she trailed off.

Shae frowned and turned on the spot. "Is that why you've been acting so weird?"

Nicole opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she could find the right words. "I just, you've been dropping hints.  I didn't want to make you mad."

"Babe." the older girl giggled. "I haven't been dropping hints."

"Ok but you've been looking at me differently, like you've wanted something."

"I've wanted to spend time with you?"

"And then you've been saying all week that you want to make it up to me.  Like with that seductive tone." Nicole continued.

"You mean earlier today? I was whispering so your friends wouldn't hear."

"Ok that's fair.  But what about the roses and the chocolates and the sexy fire and the 'get me out of this dress' stuff?"

"Babe, if I wanted to have sex with you there would be no questions about it.  And if I were trying to be seductive you'd definitely know." Shae smiled. "I want out of this dress because I'm uncomfortable."

"Oh god." Nicole dropped her face in her hands and shook her head. "I'm so embarrassed."

"No, don't be.  We're supposed to talk about this kind of stuff."

"Sorry, I freaked out. I just didn't know what you'd do if I said no."

"I would say ok and we keep having a regular relationship"

They sat in silence for half a second before Nicole’s head was suddenly full with an onslaught of questions.  But she chose to ask just one.

"Do you...not want to have sex with me?" She asked bashfully. Shae tucked a piece of loose hair behind her girlfriend’s hair before answering.

"Oh I do.  I definitely, absolutely, positively, want you."

"Then why haven't we like, at least gone to the next base?"

"Because you're still barely comfortable grabbing my hips, I was letting you go at your own pace." Shae answered simply.

"Do you feel ready? To go all the way?"

"If I felt like you were ready then I think I would be. But you’re not, so I’m not either."

"Ok...well do you think we could do other stuff?"

"Stuff like what?" the darker girl asked.

"Maybe when you put my hands under my shirt you could slide them up a little more...and maybe I could too."

"I think we can do that.  But I really need you to unzip me because I can't do it myself."

Shae turned around once more and Nicole's hands steadily went to the top of the garment and slipped the zipper down to wear it stopped just above Shae's lower back.  All of her skin was exposed, and goose bumped from the slight chill in the air.  It looked really smooth and soft, so Nicole bent her head down and kissed between Shae's shoulder blades, causing more goosebumps to arise.

And that night Nicole discovered just how amazing it was to place her lips over various parts of the female form.  None of the scandalous parts were touched (for too long), or even seen so nerves weren't even a factor in this encounter.

Nicole ended up lying on her back with her shirt removed and Shae lay on top of her in nothing but a bra and some boy shorts: suckling at the redhead's neck in that way that made her writhe and moan hopelessly.  Nicole was brave enough to run her hands over her girlfriend's ass and squeeze slightly, grounding their pelvis's together to relieve some of the friction of heat that had developed between her legs.  Shae would stop them every so often, so she could "cool off" and Nicole appreciated it, because truth be told she needed to cool off too but didn't have the will power to rip her lips away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like everyone's character has developed enough so I'm gonna start jumping forward quite a bit to where everyone is an adult (sorta) and independent.

**Author's Note:**

> I've written a lot of this already so i'll probably update every 5-7 days if you guys are into it.


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